John Pople - Class 3: The Wilderness Journey

Automatically transcribed. Accuracy is good but not perfect, and words are sometimes wrong. Trust the audio over the text.

1. 0:00

   For Bible talks, I always remember your Bible. Part one. Right. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. So our sort of sub-subject or our under-subject this morning is the wilderness journey. We're going to be looking at the when and where, and also to some extent the what and who of Job. Now that sounds a little bit dry, sounds a little bit boring, and indeed I wouldn't even bother to show you anything concerning the when or the where of Job unless I felt that it actually had a spiritual impact on the story itself. And in this unusual case, the book of Job, I do honestly believe there's a spiritual impact even from the geography and from the genealogy, or should I say the chronology, of the book itself. So we're going to see what that is. So bear with me while we do that. Nevertheless, before we start, I want to pick up on just one point from yesterday. It was actually two or three people, two or three groups of people, asked me separately on the same question. It was a very intelligent question.

2. 1:06

   It made me realize that there was a point that I had evidently failed to communicate. So I want to clarify one point. It was a very good question and well worth your address. Open your Bibles, therefore, if you would, at Job chapter 1. We kind of need open Bibles for this one. And the question went like this. It said, well, if Satan is supposed to be understood as the spirit of man, whether or not it's envisioned in the three friends or not, but you think that it is in the book of Job, then how does the three friends, how do they bring all the calamity upon Job? How do they destroy the flocks, destroy the herds, destroy the children, and bring boils on Job's skin and all of that? It's clear they cannot do this. And that's a true statement. I have actually heard those who suggest that humans could have brought that about, but I don't buy into that at all. Humans could not have done that. Job chapter 1 and verse 12, you see, here's where the problem starts.

3. 1:58

   The Lord said to Satan, whomever Satan is, very well then, everything he has is in your hands. Okay? So Satan is empowered. And I've said Satan is Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. Well, that's not very good, is it? Because they clearly can't do what follows. But the explanation comes that that is very unusual language, because God says himself in chapter 2, and I'm now in verse 3, I'm jumping in halfway through verse 3, look, says the Lord to Satan, Job still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason. So God clarifies that even though he's used the language, I put everything in your hands, Satan, he's the one who's going to act. So it was God who did all of this to Job. And that's made clear again at the end of the book. So that solves that question, but of course it may raise a second question, which is, okay, so if it's God doing it, why on earth does he use this potentially very confusing language in chapter 1, saying, okay, Satan, it's all over to you? And I think the reason that God uses that language is he wants the reader to understand who the blame lies with, who is responsible for all these things, regardless of who performs the actions, where does the responsibility lie? So I see that chapter 1, verse 12, as being very indicative to us of where the responsibility for the disaster that comes upon Job should lie. So that was an excellent question that was raised a few times yesterday. And so it's worth taking the trouble to clarify that. Thank you for bringing

4. 3:41

   those questions to me. Okay then, the wilderness journey. Let's make a start. Here's an overview of the book of Job. I always like big picture views. I hate working in something when it's like nine miles long and I've only seen the first couple of hundred yards. I don't know what's going on. So I like to see a big picture view of the book of Job. So that's my attempt to put all 42 chapters of the book of Job on one slide in front of you. And this is where you see there's this incredible degree of structure.

5. 4:09

   And that's why no wonder people sometimes think, oh it must be a made-up story. It must be a play because it's so carefully arranged. And it is. These numbers in green, if you can make out the colors, these are the chapter numbers. So you have some sort of opening, which is written in prose, that's normal sort of sentences, which is three chapters long, just setting the scene.

6. 4:27

   Then you have the main debate between Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar and Job responding. And it's very structured. Here again are the chapter numbers. Each of the three friends, should we call them friends, speak in term, right? Eliphaz speaks in chapters four and five. Job responds in chapters six and seven. Bildad speaks in chapter eight. Job replies in chapters nine and ten. And Zophar speaks in chapter 11. Job replies in chapters 12 and 14. That's the end of the first round. And the second round goes the same way with these chapter numbers. And the third round goes the same way with these chapter numbers. Until finally Job breaks in. And he breaks in the middle of Bildad's third speech. Zophar doesn't even get a third speech. And that's where this curious character Elihu comes in. And then God speaks in chapters 38 through 41. There's a little dialogue with Job. And then the end is also written in prose. All of these chapters are written in a poetic structure. And then the end is chapter 42. So there's the book of Job, just to get the big picture view of what's going on. I want to try and spend a little time thinking about just how long did that all last?

7. 5:37

   If you want to just read the book of Job, even out loud, you can get through the whole thing in an evening pretty easily. Okay, it only takes a couple of hours. Now is that true? Is that really what happened? Was this just an evening's discussion? We know that the three friends sat for seven days before they opened their mouth. But by the time they did, was it all done in a night? I think there's a fair amount of evidence in the book of Job itself that it lasted a great deal longer than that. I want to suggest it was probably a few months at least overall. Here's some thoughts on the time scale of the discourses. First of all, they waited seven nights. The three friends waited seven days and seven nights before they said anything. So nothing is hurried in this culture. That would be absolutely bizarre in this culture. You come to my house and sit with me without saying anything for seven days. I'm going to be pretty weirded out by day two. I'm telling you, all right? There's going to be trouble, right? Now, of course, that's not just so they didn't necessarily open their mouths, but they clearly didn't make any discourse on this particular important subject. So this is a very different culture. It's a culture where things happen very slowly and carefully. To some extent, Arab culture or Eastern culture is still that way today. I remember a friend of mine who traveled in that area said, in fact, it was someone he barely recognized. He'd met them a couple of times, and they were heading down to a certain city. He knew which city I would tell you, but I forget.

8. 6:55

   He was going to, and he was driving in a car, and the friend was walking by the side of the road. And he just offered him a ride, as you would. He said, oh, you're doing business in Haifa or wherever it was? I'll give you a ride. Hop in. That's where I'm going. The guy says, no, it's okay.

9. 7:08

   I'll just carry on walking. And he says, well, how long do you think you're going to take to get there? He says, I don't know, two, three days, whatever. He says, well, you could be there in an hour. He says, it makes no difference. I'm going to do my business. And there's just not this idea that the time schedule is that important. The business is the next thing that needs to happen. It'll happen when it happens. And that seems to be totally foreign culture to us, obviously. Imagine doing that in the meetings you might need to have at work. I'll be there in a few days, maybe. I'll catch up with you when I do. It doesn't go down too well. But also, there's other things in what Job says that really lets you know that this has taken a long time to occur. Just look at some of these phrases and think, what's the most natural time scale over which these kind of things would have occurred? My kinsmen have gone away. Okay. So people have quit on Job. Right. My friends have forgotten me. So if he's just been cooped up in his house for a week, let's hope his friends wouldn't have forgotten him. I mean, you guys are all away at Bible school and I'll be away for a week afterwards.

10. 8:15

    My friends, let's hope, the few that I have left shouldn't have forgotten me by the time I get back, even in a few weeks or a summer's travel. So his friends have forgotten him. My guests and maidservants count me a stranger. The fact that he has guests in his house is interesting because if he's come down with a calamitous illness over short term, the first thing you do is you send your guests home probably or they'd leave. It's clearly been so long he's started taking guests again.

11. 8:40

    They look upon me as an alien. Even the little boys scorn me when I appear. When I appear where? If you're that sick, stay in bed. But you can't do that forever. I think he's been so sick for so long he's learned to get up and partly get on with life and go out into the marketplace and be ridiculed by the little boys. All my intimate friends detest me. Those I love have turned against me. Let's hope, that wouldn't happen immediately. I am nothing but skin and bones. I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth. And so his frame has become emaciated. That can't happen in a day or two. So I'm saying with all of these considerations, we should be thinking this has lasted probably. This whole experience goes on for several months or a few months. It may even be after the first week, the three friends, this is total speculation, sit with Job, that they have a discussion, that one speech is delivered. If we go back to the structure, it may be that this is maybe every Sabbath day when the friends are continuing with their work. I don't know, I'm making this up. And they meet together as a sort of a formal convocation at Job's house. And you know, we've just had last Sabbath, Bildad spoke for the second time, we'll come back next week to hear what Job has to say in reply.

12. 9:59

    That could also account for why the speeches are so formal and structured. They may be all a week in preparation. If that's true, this whole thing would last a few months, which is probably natural. Okay, so that's just getting a feel for the time scale of this book. This is kind of tricky, but I like to do this too. Again, this is trying, this is supposed to help. So if this hinders, just switch off. Okay. I just want to get a sense for the book of Job. So here's a kind of a linear time scale on the bottom. Chapters three, where Job starts speaking, and four, six through 26, the main discussions, and 27 through, whoa, 31, that would have been good, where Job gives two more speeches. And I've labeled them and color-coded them. When Job gives a general speech, kind of speaking openly, he gives three of those, a first speech, a second, and a third. And then obviously when he's discussing, these are all the words of Job, right? It's not the words of the friends. All I'm doing is saying, how many have there been? I'm counting sentences, not verses, because that's kind of arbitrary, but counting sentences. This is the way you group up what he says to his friends. You could either group them by friend. He says this much to Eliphaz, this much to Bildad, this much to Zophar, or you could group them by round of speech, because they go in three rounds, right? This is how much Job says in the first round, the second round, the third round. What do we notice? There's quite a

13. 11:18

    lot of mathematical beauty to this. I don't know why, but there's exactly a hundred phrases, and there's pretty much twice as many in the first round, and half as many in the third round. There's also a hundred phrases in the third general speech, half as many in the speech before, and half as many in the speech before that. And there's about, with some margin of error, approximately, equally a hundred phrases in each of the, each that he gives to each friend. So there's, there is a great deal of mathematical beauty. Unfortunately, I don't really find a good reason why it's there, but there is quite a lot of symmetry and beauty in the, in this construction.

14. 11:54

    Let's just move them together, kind of group them together, just so we can see what's going on. And what can we observe? I guess the only thing that I can really see for, for, for a difference is, the friends are much of a muchness, right? He doesn't seem to discriminate between one and another. He seems to say about as much to each one. But as time goes on, he just says less and less and less to any of them. And that seems instructive. That seems instructive of how helpful they've been. And with this, this sharp downward trend, they're not much use. And Job is just giving up talking to them. What's the point in talking to you guys? You just don't even listen to me.

15. 12:29

    Okay. So this is a good testimony, or a good indictment of how useful the friends are. And we should take that to heart when we see the kinds of things that they say, if we're called to be in their position ever, as a counselor or as a comforter. And in fact, but the general speeches where Job just kind of cries aloud to the universe, kind of offsetting the fact that he can't talk to his friends because they're no use, they get bigger and bigger. They double in size each time.

16. 12:54

    So those are, those are the observations I've just made. The lessons to learn, I don't really know, I'm grasping and I'd appreciate your input. Know when to stop, right? If you, if you see your friend that you're trying to comfort, spaying less and less and less, you must be on the wrong track. Or maybe Job should know when to stop. Maybe he should have given up on these guys here while they continue to wrestling with them. And in times of adversity, too often our only comfort is the Lord. You can see that the friends were no use. So he cried out to the Lord more and more. In which case we should at least make sure in times of health and good favor, that our bond with the Lord is made strong. So that if we need to cry to him, this is someone he knows. Although God knows everything. This is someone that he feels he has a relationship with that we've genuinely invested in. So this is some of the, just the mathematical structure that we see in the words of the book of Job. Those aren't too clear or insightful thoughts because they're still, it's still a very challenging thing to know how to interpret that. And I appreciate your feedback. Here's where we can be a little bit more definitive.

17. 13:56

    When was Job? Now, if you look in the literature, you'll find just about every answer you could possibly conceive of. You'll find from before the flood, all the way down to, in one case, in one book I found, at the time of the exile. So I mean, millennia have passed in the possible suggestions of when is Job. And like I say, I could care less when Job is unless there's some reason I should know. And I think there is a reason I should know. So I want to carry on pushing for this.

18. 14:28

    How then can we solve it? We can't solve it from Job's age, particularly, because we're told that he lives an unusually long time. So if his age is atypical, we can't use his age to place him in a sort of any form of cultural reference. However, we can use the ages of the people around him. And here's the only clue we get to that. In the time when Job lived 140 years, regardless of how old he was at the beginning or at the end of that 140 years, he saw his children that we know started at the beginning of that period, because up to then all his children had been lost. He saw four generations. So in other words, it's kind of a background detail. Four generations are born in 140 years. That's a clue. That's a scientific clue that we can use to maybe date the book of Job.

19. 15:17

    It's only a detail. What do we notice? With respect to the flood anyway, the pre-flood average for four generations was 410 years. And the post-flood average, I'm taking all of the genealogies down as far as I can. I'm into Joseph, I think. The post-flood average to see four generations is 125 years. And that's perfect. That's really rather certain. There's no doubt Job is after the flood. In 140 years, he sees four generations. That's exactly right. The fourth generation should come out at 125 years, plus or minus. And the fifth generation is due at about 155 years. Well, he didn't last 155 years, so he didn't see the fifth generation. So it's only a detail. You never want to hang too much on one detail. But it's a detail that confidently places Job after the flood. If he'd only lived 140 years, he would have only seen one or two more generations and no more.

20. 16:14

    Where can we go next? This is interesting. This is a family tree. Paul says, don't waste your time on pointless genealogies. This one, however, is not pointless. Here's a man we all know, Abraham, and his brother, Nahor. What I've shown here, there's Nahor's two sons, Uz and Buzz. And here's Abraham with two wives, Sarah and Keturah. Through Keturah, he has the son Shur. Through Sarah, as we know, this is the more famous story, of course, he has the son Isaac. And through Isaac, Esau, also known as Edom, and Jacob, also known as Israel. Edom has the son Eliphaz. That's interesting. Here's a family name coming up. And Eliphaz has a son called Teman. Jacob has many sons, one of which is called Benjamin.

21. 17:01

    And one of Benjamin's sons is called Naaman. Why do we care? We care because we're finding the names that exist in the book of Job. By the time this man becomes a big city in a tribe, he will form the Temanites. Okay? Etc. We will find, who's in the book of Job? Eliphaz, family name, the Temanite.

22. 17:23

    This is the only man in all scripture called Teman. Zophar, the Naamathite. This is one of only three men in scripture called Naaman. And Bildad is a Shuite. It's the only man in all scripture called Shua. And Elihu is the Buzzite. This is the only man in all scripture whose name is Buzz. And in fact, even this name shows up. Where does this name show up? Opening verse, the land of Uz. Quite right. In the land of Uz, there lived a man whose name was Job. It doesn't say Job the Uzite. I think there's a reason for that that we're going to come a little bit to later. But since he's established in this land, obviously he's a rich and powerful man, it could well be that he is indeed an Uzite.

23. 18:08

    Okay, so there's a genealogy that helps us establish that the time of Job must be some considerable way downstream from Abraham. How far, we're not exactly sure just yet. But he's downstream from Abraham because it seems beyond a bizarre coincidence that all these five names that we need showing up for the storyline of Job have all been set at this time. What else do we notice?

24. 18:36

    As I said, you know, let's play with family genealogies. That's of no spiritual value. But here's spiritual value. Who do we define these as? By my understanding at least. This is Satan. So who's Satan a child of? That's interesting, isn't it? Particularly by the time you get, I'm not pointing blame at Abraham, I'm just pointing a finger that says look at his descendants. Because isn't this what the Jews should have learned? We have Abraham as our father.

25. 19:06

    And Jesus says, yeah, I know. We've seen your kind before. Satan has Abraham as his father. What does that teach us? I like to use the phrase inextricably intertwined. That's where Satan is with a righteous man. Do you know where Satan is today? You know, right here. Oh, no, wait, I thought that was the guy he was trying to serve God. Yes, it is. Inextricably intertwined. It's almost impossible. He's in our every cell structure. And even the Bible was trying to teach us that from long ago. For those who would be fooled, Abraham, don't mistake me, was the friend of God. But it was foolish to say, therefore, everything that flows from his veins must be good and pure necessarily. Not so. Salvation is a very individual thing. And though good men came from Abraham, did not Messiah come from the landline of Abraham? So did Satan. They have been inextricably intertwined for many generations.

26. 20:07

    And I think that's a very valuable lesson in solving the chronology or the genealogy of the characters in Job to learn that Satan is indeed himself a child of Abraham. We have Abraham as our father is no valued boast in itself. And yet, here's a man who cannot claim Abraham as his father.

27. 20:29

    For Job is of the land of Uz, nor can Elihu. Here are two Gentiles that would certainly be looked down on as second-class citizens by the children of Abraham. And we'll see that they will certainly be looked down on in that way. So that's the value of that particular piece.

28. 20:51

    I knew I hadn't got myself organized because one thing I'd like to point out to you is just for interest's sake, if you're interested, I made a little bookmark, a laminated thing with that slide and a few details on it and a little picture there. So I have a handout if you want one. I have quite a lot. I'm not sure if it's entirely enough. So I'll put them up there. Come and, well, I'll put them down here because I'll knock them over. Come and get them at the end if you'd like a little handout just to remember that by. For now, let's press on. One other thing that allows us to date the book of Job is that he knows about the Exodus. Now, in order for us to know about the Exodus, let me just back up a little bit and introduce a little bit of language that's necessary for us to understand something about the Exodus. And that is one of the names of Egypt, the name of Rahab. This is a quote from Isaiah chapter 30, where God says, that unprofitable nation, Egypt, whose help is utterly useless.

29. 21:46

    Therefore, I call her Rahab the do-nothing. Right? That's God's name for Egypt. Please don't confuse this with the name of the righteous prostitute. That's a strange oxymoron. The righteous prostitute in Jericho. Okay? Her name is a different Hebrew word than this. One of them actually should have a C in it as Rahab. And I forget which is which. It doesn't matter. The point is they're two different words. So this is a unique name, Rahab, which is given by God to Egypt. So much so that in Isaiah 51, you can certainly recognize this description as the Red Sea crossing. Let me read it to you.

30. 22:27

    I'll come in just here. Was it not you, O God, who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced that monster through? Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed might cross over? So that's clearly a reference to Israel crossing over on that dry road in the middle of the sea where Rahab, who is Egypt, was cut to pieces by that same time. Okay? So this is Isaiah 51. It's a rather kind of metaphorical description of the crossing of the Red Sea. Why is that useful? We need to know about that and be familiar with that language to realize that Job is saying the same thing. Here are two comments of Job, one from chapter 9, one from chapter 26, where he says, the pillars of the heavens quake aghast at his rebuke. By God's power, he churned up the sea. By his wisdom, he cut Rahab to pieces. By his breath, the skies became fair. His hand pierced the gliding serpent. Okay? So on its own, when you read that verse, you don't naturally think, oh, sure, he's talking about the passage of the Red Sea. But by the time you fed Isaiah 30 and Isaiah 51 into there, you can see that is a clear reference to Israel coming out of Egypt. So it means it must have happened for Job to know about it and to comment on it in the past tense and say, this is what God has done. This is how I know about his powers. Okay? So Job is definitely downstream of the Exodus. He

31. 23:56

    can't go too far downstream. Otherwise, that 140 years to see four generations will become invalid. And that's part of the reason why I placed the chronology of the book of Job with some degree of confidence at the time of Israel's wilderness wandering, just after the Exodus. Okay? And at least I have shown you the evidence by which I got there. So if you find that unconvincing, that's fine. I don't mind. I won't be offended. But I've given you the tools, at least, by which you might assemble whatever you might think is the chronology of Job. Where is the land of Uz? This is, I don't know if that comes, oh, it's pretty clear. If you can see, this is a great satellite picture. I love satellite pictures. They're astonishing. Here's the sweep of the Mediterranean Sea coming around here. Okay?

32. 24:40

    There's the island of Cyprus, you might be able to recognize. And here's the land of Israel right here. And for those of you who are used to looking at Bible maps, as I have been from a child, you'll recognize this familiar pattern of here's the Dead Sea, and then what I always used to think I was a balloon on a string. And there's the string going up, there's the River Jordan, all the way up to that little blob there, the Sea of Galilee. It gives you, kind of orients you as to the land of Israel. Where is the land of Uz? Scholars disagree. That's pretty much what they're paid to do. But they've, you know, here are the proposed sites. And between any of these, I could care less. Here is the proposed sites of the potential lands of Uz. Each of these is effectively in the mountains of Eden. Eden. Edom. The mountains of Esau, the mountains of Edom.

33. 25:23

    Okay? Outside of the land of promise. That's relevant. It's outside of the land of promise. Israel are not in the land at the time this happens. That's an extra detail that allows us to say, yeah, it's not further downstream than the time of the Exodus. The Exodus has come up from this direction, as we'll see on the next slide. And so you can see the point at which they will interact with the land of Uz. And in fact, because they're close to the promised land, it's towards the end of that time. Of course, they're rebuffed for 40 years when they get there. Finally, the conquest will happen here, across the River Jordan, heading west, just north of the Dead Sea. But at their first attempt, as you know, they're turned back to wander in the wilderness. How far did they go? I'm guessing they didn't go too far. I'm guessing they wandered, you know, around this kind of area, which meant they'd be constantly associated with wherever the land of Uz was. It's right there to the south. Okay?

34. 26:16

    So the basic points I want to notice, it's outside the promised land. So Israel are prior to Canaan entry. And in fact, you'll even notice a detour. Eliphaz seems to make a reference to the fact that the people do not have a homeland. So that's all allowing us to place the time and the circumstances in which this remarkable book takes place. Here's a big story. I mean, a story that's spread over a very large time scale that I'd like to introduce to you, because I think it's very relevant to understanding the true nature of the book of Job. We're going to start in Bethel, which means, as you know, the house of God. That's relevant, isn't it? Whenever a place is called house of God, that's a very relevant place, spiritually speaking. Here's what happens. Bethel, oh, sorry, just introduced the map.

35. 27:02

    I'm sure you can orient. So here's the Sinai Peninsula. Okay, so Israel is now up here. There's the Dead Sea again, and the River Jordan. The Sea of Galilee is going to be about there. And you can see straight away, you see this kind of green, dark splotch? It was a land flowing with milk and honey.

36. 27:18

    You can see it's a verdant land compared to the wilderness all here, right? This is kind of a verdant area. And of course, if you want to see verdant, check this out. Here's the Nile River. And then it fans out into this delta. It's nothing but green. So there's greenness and plenty here in Egypt. There's plenty in watermelons in Egypt. Oh, we like those. Yeah, absolutely. But there's also greenness here in the land of promise. And so here's the storyline. And I've color-coded it because it's big. It goes over at least four books. Genesis, Exodus, and the book of Exodus, of course, is synonymous with three of the other books of the Pentateuch, and Job and Joshua. Here's how the story goes. It's very simple. There's Bethel. Well, that blob is so big it takes out about 50 cities. But Bethel is in that kind of area. And here's the first thing that happens. Think about this on a spiritual level while I talk on a natural level. Israel departs the house of God, right? Jacob, the man whose name was Israel, leaves the house of God in Genesis 35. That's where this story starts that I want to draw your attention to. And for reasons we don't need to go into, it goes all the way down to the land of Egypt, indeed the land of Goshen, where he is settled by Pharaoh.

37. 28:29

    A few years pass, at least 400 in fact. But this is the time scale on which God's patterns work. That's why the Bible is so remarkable. We just don't think on these time scales. But this is just one sort of storyline and quite a simple one. Here's the color. That was pink because that all happened in Genesis. In the book of Exodus, which I've shown in blue, here's what happens. Israel leaves the land of Egypt. And they head out at speed to start with into the wilderness. And eventually they cross the Red Sea. And I realize the conventional understanding says they cross the Gulf of Suez here. But I'm convinced in my own mind they cross the Gulf of Aqaba over here. We don't need to go into why or how.

38. 29:08

    So they cross the Red Sea. And they come down to Sinai. Notice where I put Sinai. Not on the Sinai Peninsula. I think that's a very mislabeled event. The Bible tells us clearly Sinai is in Midian. Midian isn't on the Sinai Peninsula. Midian is here. Okay? You will come worship me on this mountain, Moses gets told, whilst he's in Midian. Okay? So Israel comes down to Sinai. They receive the law.

39. 29:32

    And having received the law, having been formed as a nation, they drive up northwards. And finally, in the book of Joshua, by Joshua chapter 8, they return to the house of God. Bethel is right over the river where they first conquest the land. It's a closed loop. Total time elapsed. You know how you get that on the printout of how long your flights take? Similar to mine here, about 500 years. Okay?

40. 29:57

    Then it's just a story about Israel leaving the house of God. And finally, through God's grace, being returned to the house of God. Okay, nice story. So what, you say? I think you forgot your topic. No, I didn't forget my topic. You see, there's us. So where is the book of Job? It's right at the end. They have been gone from the house of God. This is the darkest hour before the dawn for Israel.

41. 30:23

    Never mind Job. They have been outside of the house of God for the longest they have ever been. They were rebuffed on the first attempt because of their faithlessness, sent back into the desert. So this is the timing of the book of Job. The children of God are lost, tempted, and wandering in the desert outside of God's house. That is the context in which this remarkable story unfolds.

42. 30:47

    And we need to be sensitive to this context if we're going to understand what state the Israelites have been in. They've been outside of the house of God for longer than they've ever been. So let's try and get into the text in the last 10 minutes and sit a little with Job before we get into the main discussions, wrestling with Satan and a righteous man tomorrow. So Satan went out of the presence of the Lord and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. And what a pathetic sight he is. Job took a piece of broken pottery and scraped himself with it as he sat among the ashes. Where is he actually sitting? Why is there ashes? His house didn't burn down. Matza, matza, matza. Come on. Someone be bold. And you think he's sitting on the ruins of his kid's house? Maybe. Maybe. I must admit, I had supposed he was in a hot country. I think he sat on the rubbish heap. But that answer gives no different. That's fine too. Either of those gives the same answer. He is sat on a heap of ruins. It could well just be the burn pile. He owns a huge amount of land, right? Because he's got all these flocks and herds. He will have a rubbish heap where there will be, where there's ashes. Or it may be the ruins of his children's house. Either way is good.

43. 32:07

    He's sat in a rubbish heap. He's sat on a trash heap. He's sat in a disaster area. Why is he sat there? Do the ashes bring comfort to skin disease? I don't know. I'm not medically qualified to answer. I think it's a statement. He's making a statement about what God has done to him. God has trashed my life or my family. Indeed both. And therefore I sit here because this is how God has treated me.

44. 32:31

    This will be a very relevant comment that Job makes as we go into the book. In the broader context, notice the picture we just thought about. Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. How interesting that is. We know what that means within the story of Job. But you remember about the 500 year story we just looked at? Israel went out from the house of God, from Bethel, back in Genesis 35.

45. 32:54

    And they're still outside of the presence of the Lord. Israel indeed are the ones who have opposed God. Well, that's just, it's just a nice kind of echo we hear from the previous story. And let's not be too dismissive of the sufferings of Job. It's hard to, particularly if we're all, you know, well rested from a night's sleep and well fed from a good breakfast and sitting in relatively comfortable chairs. It's hard maybe to truly empathize or sympathize or have compassion to suffer alongside one who is suffering so badly. And words, frankly, don't really cut it. But words, I'm afraid, is all that I can transmit. And so at least let me identify the fact that Job's sufferings are across the spectrum of our experience. Nothing is spared. Nothing is physical suffering. I'm standing too far away. Oops, I'm pressing the wrong button. Many other faults.

46. 33:51

    The night drags on and I toss till dawn. My body is clothed with worms and scabs. My skin is broken and festering. But there's also an emotional element to his suffering. If only my anguish could be weighed, it would surely outweigh the sand of the seas. And I don't think he's talking about his skin disease.

47. 34:12

    I think he's talking about the loss of his children, presumably. I'm sure that's how a parent would feel. Socially, he is made to suffer. Socially, he is afflicted. The sons of the men he would not have deigned to put with the sheepdogs, mock him in song. I have become a byword among them. They do not hesitate to spit in my face. On a personal, even intimate level, my breath is offensive to my wife.

48. 34:38

    He cannot even take comfort in his spouse. If he goes to kiss her, she's repulsed. It doesn't mean she doesn't kiss him. She might kind of bear up and grit her teeth and kiss them. He can tell. A man can tell. His breath is offensive to his wife. He is denied solace by what God has done to him even there. I am loathsome to my own brothers and perhaps weightier even than all of these, his spiritual suffering. I cry out to you, O God, but you don't answer. I stand up. You merely look at me.

49. 35:12

    You turn on me ruthlessly. With the might of your hand, you attack me. This is the completeness of the affliction of Job, and we should do well to meditate upon it before we can make any commentary about the words that come out of his mouth, whether right or wrong, whether good or evil.

50. 35:32

    Hence then the cry of Job. May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said a boy is born. May darkness and deep shadow claim it once more. At the end of this quote he says, May those who curse days curse that day. He means his birthday. Those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.

51. 35:53

    This will become a very ironic quote that he's made. We don't see why it's ironic just yet, but we will see exactly how Leviathan is roused, and it's interesting that Job suggested that it might be roused this way. Well, I don't think Job realizes what he's saying. Nevertheless, such is his character that in the midst of his suffering, he also maintains his belief in redemption. And I'm not going to pretend this is one of the most famous verses of Job, and I'm not going to pretend I have a good understanding of what Job means. I'm sure that the Redeemer he refers to is actually God, but that doesn't, it's still difficult to know what Job is saying. Nevertheless, it's easy to recognize it's a statement of great faith. I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.

52. 36:37

    After my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes, I and not another. How my heart yearns within me. He never let go of that handle of hope that let him sit there in the ashes, no matter how embittered and angry he was that he was sat there in the destruction on the trash heap either of his property or of what had become of his children's house. He never let go of the fact that he felt he would be redeemed. And we'll spend the last couple of minutes just doing a quick introduction to the three friends themselves, or as one philosopher had referred to them, which I felt was very good, les comforters miserables, that's the miserable comforters that he knew.

53. 37:24

    And a little context here, Edom, the characteristic of Edom, no comfort in the wilderness. Remember this? Edom despised his birthright, never mind that. But when the children of Israel came out of the Exodus, which remember is very recent, if our chronology is right, this is what your brother Jacob, Israel, says. You know about all the hardships that have come upon us, Edom. Please let us pass through your country. You may not pass through here. If you try, we will march out and attack you. These are brothers, Edom and Israel. And Eliphaz is a child of Esau. Eliphaz is a Temanite who is an Edomite.

54. 38:07

    So how interesting that the one who offered no comfort in the wilderness was the son of the one who offered no comfort in the wilderness. Eliphaz starts out saying, think, Job, how you have instructed many, how you strengthened feeble hands. Your words have supported those who stumbled. You have strengthened faltering knees. And this supports my contention, that their initial sympathy for Job is not faked, but it's also not substantially real. The truth comes out later. And Eliphaz openly contradicts his own words. He says, look, you demanded security from your brothers for no reason.

55. 38:45

    You stripped men of their clothing, leaving them naked. You gave no water to the weary, and you withheld food from the hungry. You sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the fatherless. The exact opposite. This is his third speech. This is his first. He contradicts himself openly. This is the truth of his feelings. Bildad, also a child of Abraham. Now Bildad I take as, and I have to speak carefully, because it turns out God loves Bildad, and God worked out a plan of salvation for Bildad and the other two. So I speak with due care. But in this phase, at least, I find that Bildad is the most vicious of the three. Because Bildad, often that sort of epitaph is reserved for Zophar. Zophar, I think, is the most pompous. He's the most foolish. But Bildad is genuinely vicious. He actually designs his comments to match exactly Job's circumstances. So he makes up this parable in chapter 18. He says, let me tell you about the wicked man. Let me tell you, we could even start with the conclusion. Surely such is the dwelling of an evil man. Such is the place of one who knows not God. Let me tell you about the wicked man. Here's three characteristics of the wicked man.

56. 40:02

    Fire resides in his tent. Burning sulfur is scattered over his dwelling. Well, that's interesting, because the fire of God fell from the sky and burned up Job's servants. Well, let me tell you about the wicked man, says Bildad. Calamity is hungry for him. It eats away parts of his skin. I mean, it's absurd. Bildad actually says, let me tell you about the wicked man, they usually end up with skin disease. Oh, really?

57. 40:28

    Well, that's funny, because what can he see in front of him? A man with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. That's a kind of nicely designed comment, isn't it? Oh, but Bildad isn't finished. The wicked man has no offspring or descendants where he lives. He doesn't have any survivors or descendants. How unfortunate that he's just said that to a man who's had 10, all 10 of his children killed. Such is the nature of Bildad, a child of Abraham. And finally, Zophar, who's actually the only one who's an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin. Surely God recognizes deceitful men, and when he sees evil, does he not take note? If you put away the sin that is in your hand, then you will lie down with no one to make you afraid. And it's the absolute reflection or the foretelling of what's going to happen to the Israelites. Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? It's the same flavor. These are the children of Abraham that are Israelites. They have this doctrine of retribution implanted within them. Does God use suffering as a punishment for sin? Yes, he does. Does that mean every time you see someone suffering, you know it's punishment? No, it isn't. And yet that's what the Israelites have never figured out. It seems, from this time at least, to this. And Jesus has to explain that these things are here so that we can see the work of God in operation. And that at least will bring us, that gives us an introduction to the who, the what, the when, and the where of Job. And as I say, there's a little handout down here, if you

58. 42:06

    like, about the genealogy and a couple of other details on. And then tomorrow we're going to get into the engine room of this discussion, into the proper debate between Satan and the righteous man. And we'll see how, now that we've found out who Satan is, it's the three friends. And now that we've found out that we're in the wilderness as the setting, at the time of Exodus's wilderness wandering, we realize we're looking about a story about how a righteous man is about to be tempted in the wilderness by the devil. And we'll see just how well he fares. Thank you, Andrew.