John Pople - Class 4: Satan in the Wilderness

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

1. 0:00

   Good morning again. Good morning. All right, so this is the day where we get into the real engine room of the study of Job. This is the maximum, the core of the text, where Job is debating with his three friends. And to remind ourselves of what the structure of the book looks like, at least between chapters 4 and 31, there are these blocks of speeches that go in rounds.

2. 0:27

   It's very sequential. Everyone speaks in turn, nobody speaks out of turn, at least until this point where Job finally breaks in and stops the whole procedure and brings it to a halt. This is what the structure looks like. And the first thing that I want to know, this is almost by way of an aside, is I don't know how you feel if you follow the reading plan that we generally feel, our sort of default Robert Roberts reading plan, but I think that's a great plan for dealing with a lot of books of the Bible.

3. 0:58

   I think it serves our understanding of the book of Job really quite poorly. And I think maybe that's why in our community, Job still remains somewhat of an obscure text, because by reading sort of one chapter a day or whatever it is, it's just very difficult to maintain a big picture view of what is really going on in this discussion.

4. 1:18

   And so you can often go through these central chapters from about chapter 4 all the way to chapter 31 and thinking, is anything different? Is anything changing? Are we just whizzing round and round in circles? Didn't I read this 10 days ago? Much about the same. What I would suggest to you, which is only a suggestion, is that if you read the book, if and when you read the book of Job, read at least what I would call one square at a time.

5. 1:41

   In other words, read everything that Eliphaz says and Job replies. I mean, that's only four chapters, and it's never going to be more than about four chapters at the absolute maximum. And by reading Job that way, and you might need to shuffle the days you're going to do this and so, whatever you want to do to get around that, I would say by reading at least one square at a time, you'll get a much better sense of the dialogue and a much better sense of the debate than you will from our currently structured kind of our sort of default plan.

6. 2:10

   That's just a suggestion. So there's eight squares. That is, there's eight speeches that have a response from Job on each occasion. And the first thing I'm going to do is, down the bottom there, is knock out the last one. Because in actual fact, looking at it as honestly as I can, Bildad never really gets to deliver his speech.

7. 2:30

   If you look at chapter 25, it's all of a couple of sentences long. Bildad gets started, and Job cuts him off and says, no, that's it, enough, enough. And then continues to give general speeches. So this one never really gets going. So we won't include it in our analysis. Not that if we did, anything would change.

8. 2:48

   So we now have these seven squares. The first two rounds are completed. And it's really only Eliphaz who gets to deliver his third speech. And so the first question that might come to mind is, well, why did Job break in here? I mean, at some level, he's just had enough. And it's going to mount up to be too much anyway.

9. 3:05

   But there's maybe a couple of specific reasons why Job cuts in. First, as we saw yesterday, particularly here in chapter 18, I suggest, and I mean this with true gentleness as much as possible, Bildad is really a very vicious speaker. Bildad, you might remember in chapter 18, perhaps one of the most vicious chapters in all of the Bible, how he deliberately looks at what's happened to Job and then gives this supposed hypothesis of a wicked man and makes these one-to-one matches with Job's condition.

10. 3:39

    So I think Job probably could find Bildad the hardest to listen to. And perhaps it's no surprise, therefore, that it's Bildad that he cuts off when he's finally decided the pressure is too much and he can't listen to any more of these ongoing accusations. That's one reason. Perhaps a second reason would be that by the time you get to that point, what you actually realize is Bildad in this third speech, where Job cuts in, is repeating ground.

11. 4:04

    Eliphaz has said right at the beginning of the discussion, can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his maker? And Job has acknowledged this. Indeed, I know that this is true. How can a mortal be righteous before God? We've done that. We're in agreement here. That's not going anywhere.

12. 4:21

    It's not that I refuse to accept that I cannot be righteous before my God. That's not the source of these afflictions or anything else that's going on here. And then Bildad says, how then can a man be righteous before God? How can one born of woman be pure? In other words, we're going around in circles now.

13. 4:38

    Bildad is repeating exactly what Eliphaz has already said and Job has already acknowledged long ago. So it's a good point to break in. And that is exactly where Job does break in. So that's maybe a minor reason why Job breaks in there. The fact that Bildad must have been the hardest to listen to is probably a more important reason why Job breaks in right there.

14. 4:57

    And there's going to be a third reason, which is perhaps more important still, that we're going to come to in just a minute, as to why Job breaks in where he does. But let's just recap something that we introduced in our very first talk, in our sort of philosophical appraisal of the book of Job, before we got into the text.

15. 5:12

    That idea, and what's known in the scholarly world, is the doctrine of retribution. The idea, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? These words are spoken much later than the time of Job, but they encapsulate very neatly the spirit of that doctrine that says, because God uses affliction as a form of punishment, therefore every affliction that we look at must be itself a form of sin.

16. 5:38

    And that's the false doctrine that you look at. And my point is that in the seven speeches that we're looking, the seven completed speeches, you will find the essence of that doctrine in every single speech, without exception. I'm not going to ask you to trust me. I'll put seven quotes up here just to show.

17. 5:55

    We'll skip through them quickly. But just to make sure that that point is well made, even though I'm outside of the range of my remote, I should spend more money on these things. Eliphaz's first speech, Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? And in his second speech, For the company of the godless will be barren, and fire will consume the tents of those who love bribes.

18. 6:20

    That's chapter 15. And his third speech, from chapter 22, You, Job, sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the fatherless, which is a lie. That's one of those lying accusations that allowed us to identify the satanic spirit, as it were. That is why snares are all around you, why sudden peril terrifies you.

19. 6:39

    There's the doctrine of retribution in each of the three of Eliphaz's speeches. Here it is in the two speeches of Bildad that he gets to complete. When your children sinned against God, God gave them over to the penalty of their sin. And again, The lamp of the wicked is snuffed out. The flame of his fire stops burning.

20. 7:00

    So there's this idea that there's always immediate retribution to any act of sin that comes, not in the form of salvation, not in the form of correction, not in the form of creating a path to salvation, as our brother John has showed us in his talks, but rather as an immediate slap on the head from above that hurts.

21. 7:19

    And finally, in Zophar's speeches, If you put away the sin that is in your hand and allow no evil to dwell in your tent, you will surely forget your trouble, recalling it only as water's gone by. And his second speech, The wicked man's food will turn sour in his stomach. It will become the venom of serpents within him.

22. 7:39

    Okay, so those are seven examples of the seven speeches that have this doctrine in them throughout. Key points to note. Affliction from punishment is a subset of all affliction. What do I mean by that? What I mean is the argument is not reversible. Does God use affliction as punishment? Absolutely. You'll find countless examples in Scripture.

23. 8:03

    Does that mean you can reverse the argument and say if I see someone who's afflicted, then I know God's punishing them from sin? Absolutely not. It's like saying, All crows are black. Therefore, everything that's black is a crow. Right? Crows are merely a subset of those things which are black. You cannot reverse a subset argument because you might land outside the original frame.

24. 8:27

    And secondly, retribution occurs on God's timescale. It is actually true that there will be justice in the divine scale. And the good will be blessed and the bad will be punished. But it is wrong to assume that we know the timescale over which that reckoning will be applied. And it might not even be applied within our lifetime.

25. 8:50

    We could die in a state of divine injustice. Abraham did. He was promised the land. And he never got to receive it. So in a human analysis, you'd say, Well, that's unjust. No, it's merely that time has not completed. God will give Abraham that land that he promised him. We know that that's going to happen.

26. 9:13

    So we shouldn't say that we choose the timescale over which any retribution will occur. Now let's start looking at Deuteronomy 28. Why? Because yesterday we figured out the timing of Job was while Israel are wandering in the wilderness. That's not just a quiet time. There's a lot of things happening. And Moses is relaying messages from God to the people.

27. 9:39

    And the point of doing this is to start creating a little bit of sympathy and kindness for the three friends themselves. One thing we know about these three friends, or we can suspect from the book of Job, is that they are going to be in the kingdom of God. And so if we hope to be in the kingdom of God, we're going to meet them.

28. 9:58

    Okay? So let's realize God loved them. He engineered a plan for their salvation. So they're actually very similar to ourselves. And what I want to look at is why was it that they were so taken up with this doctrine of retribution? Why was that just the one thing that would not ever get out of their mind?

29. 10:19

    What was it that made them focus on that permanently? And of course, here is what I'm going to suggest is the answer. This now, the book of Deuteronomy, now becomes absolutely contemporary with the book of Job. So the Israelites are wandering in the wilderness, listening to the things that are being said in Deuteronomy, as they encounter Job.

30. 10:41

    And when I say wandering, let's get the right impression here. They wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. But that doesn't mean they picked up their tents and moved every three days. How many times did they move? I don't know. But it wouldn't surprise me if they could be the same place for several years.

31. 10:59

    That's how they've got to get to know Job so well. They're clearly friends and established friends. I imagine the only times they move on is when their flocks and herds have actually totally exhausted the capacity of the land to support them, because it is quite a wilderness area. And this is what they've heard.

32. 11:16

    This is what Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar have got ringing in their ears. Deuteronomy 28. You can have it open in front of you if you like, or you can just look at the words, such that are visible, on the screen. And it is exactly what they're saying in their speeches to Job. This is what Moses has just told them.

33. 11:36

    If you obey, or disobey, respectively, the Lord your God, and carefully follow, or do not carefully follow, all his commands I give you today, all these blessings and cursings will come upon you and accompany or overtake you. And he's very specific about where those blessings and cursings will hit. Here's where they hit.

34. 12:01

    Four points. You will be blessed or cursed in the city, and blessed or cursed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed and cursed, and your crops and livestocks will be blessed or cursed. That's number two. Number three, your basket and your kneading trough. That's a bit bizarre, but okay.

35. 12:24

    Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed and cursed. And finally, you will be blessed or cursed when you come in, and you will be blessed or cursed when you go out. All critically dependent on whether you carefully follow, or do not carefully follow, the commands of the Lord your God. I'm sure you're familiar with Deuteronomy 28, but perhaps you haven't read Deuteronomy 28 before while studying the book of Job, because it really should be inserted somewhere in the middle as an absolute contemporary set of verses.

36. 12:58

    So then, the three friends have these verses ringing in their ears. Then they meet their old friend Job, who's suddenly been afflicted with all these calamities. And what are the specific calamities that they see? Lo and behold, it is exactly the calamities that are promised in Deuteronomy 28. There is not a whisker of a difference.

37. 13:21

    Let me put them side by side so that you can appreciate them most clearly. Here are the areas that are going to be hit, either by blessing or by cursing. In city and country, children, flocks, and herds, basket and kneading trough, which I assume to be essentially your means of food, and in going out and going in.

38. 13:42

    And here are Job's complaints, or Job's life. His flocks are destroyed out in the country, and his children are killed within the city. So there's city and country, both of them. There's flocks and children, both of them. Okay? He wastes away to skin and bone. Whether that means he can no longer digest food, or he has some problem even eating food, I don't know, it doesn't really matter.

39. 14:10

    The point is, he wastes away to skin and bone. His ability to digest food, and even sustain his own natural physical body as a part of that process, is afflicted and specifically cursed. And finally, he explains very clearly, all of these latter points in chapter 19, that when he goes out into the marketplace, he is cursed and ridiculed and made into a song of fun, and yet when he even comes home, his breath is offensive to his wife, his kinsmen leave him, and he is loathsome to his brothers.

40. 14:41

    So, in every specific instance, with no exceptions whatsoever, Job has been cursed, cursed, cursed, cursed, cursed, in these areas. So, you can understand, you can become empathetic with why Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, who've just heard this Deuteronomy 28, just last week as it happened, I'm stretching a point, but just for the sake of dramatizing the event, and they're saying, ah, Job, we understand.

41. 15:11

    No wonder Eliphaz says, we have examined these things and found them to be true. So, hear them and apply them to yourselves. He has heard this right around this time. And so, that's the, is it a mistake? It is a mistake. Why is it a mistake to apply Deuteronomy 28 to Job? Now, that's not so obvious.

42. 15:33

    I mean, is this not God's word? Is not God to be trusted? Is this true or false? It's clear what's happened to Job. And so, we need to explore why God, I believe God, has done this deliberately in order to bring this very subtle mistake to light. So that, if they make it, if Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar make this error, and are exposed for making this error, and it's included in the canon of Scripture so that we can all learn about it, it stops us making a very, very understandable and easy mistake when we meet Job, as it were, in our lifetimes.

43. 16:10

    The key points to note here is that there's been an inappropriate, why do I write words like that? The key point to note is that they have taken the judgment which will apply to a nation and they've applied it to one man. Now, what, you might say, well, is that really the wrong thing to do?

44. 16:30

    Absolutely. Let me give you a speculative, because this isn't in Scripture, so it could even be wrong, but let me give you a speculative example. I'm British, and I think a little about British history from time to time, and I noticed that there was a time around about the late 19th century and into the early 20th century when Britain were extremely, what would you say, kind, helpful to the land of Israel.

45. 16:54

    And during that time, Britain as a nation was extremely powerful on the world stage, particularly with the setting up of the Zionist Federation and the instillment of the Balfour Declaration in 1914 or 1918 or whatever it was, right? There was, those things went well together. Britain blessed the children of Abraham, and they were blessed in being an extremely powerful nation.

46. 17:18

    However, there was a time in the 1940s when Britain felt that too many immigrants from Israel were filling up the country to Britain's detriment, and they said, that's it, no more. We're going to shut them out now. And we've had enough. Shut the doors. And they did, effectively. Politically, that was a decision that was made.

47. 17:34

    And it's interesting that since the 1940s, Britain's importance on the world stage has done nothing but decline, and now they are virtually in irrelevance. Not that that bothers me. I could care less, but maybe I couldn't care less. Who knows? But, yeah, and that's a true history. I could be wrong in interpreting it this way, but that's how these favors and disfavors fall from God.

48. 17:57

    That's how he promised them. He promised them on a national scale. It is not true to say that ever since the 1940s, every British person has been unsuccessful in business, or every British family has been cursed with strange genetic diseases. Right? That's not how it's been. These are national scale comments. And that's what Deuteronomy 28 is.

49. 18:18

    Moses is saying, this is the word of God, but it's on a national scale. When you as a nation follow my commands, you as a nation will be blessed. And when you as a nation abandon my commands, then you as a nation will feel disfavor. And we have the habit of reading those words way too personally.

50. 18:40

    And I can look at someone and say, that's talking about you, Barry. So you better make sure you crashed your car last week. Ha ha, I know you've sinned. Nonsense. You cannot take national arguments and apply them on a personal level. That was the mistake that Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar made. And it's a very, very subtle mistake.

51. 19:00

    It's very easy to do. Because we're all left otherwise puzzled, thinking, but God has always said, read the Psalms, read the prophets. He's always said, behave well and I'll treat you well. Behave poorly and I'll treat you poorly. So why was it wrong for those friends to look at Job being treated so poorly by God and say, well, obviously, look at the law and the prophets.

52. 19:19

    It's said this all along. Yes, it has. On a national scale. So that's the key mistake that these three friends made. And of course, there's also a tremendous irony here that if we condemn these three friends for being too self-righteous, we're actually going to commit the same mistake that they made. that we look down on these people by saying, oh, your theology is all wrong, you're stupid, you're terrible people.

53. 19:48

    Well, they'll be in the kingdom. So we should realize that if we self-righteously condemn these friends and don't have any form of empathy or love for them, we're actually going to repeat the very self-same mistake that they made in not loving their brother, in spirit at least, Job. Being right is a burden to be handled very carefully.

54. 20:10

    And everyone always thinks they're right. Well, if you're right and you really know that you're right about something and your brother, well, he's stupid because he's got it all wrong, be very careful. You might actually be right. There's always a chance, right? In which case, delivering that message, particularly when it's a personal thing about conduct, is a very delicate thing to have to do.

55. 20:33

    All right. So, let's now look at the character of the speeches. Now, this is very difficult to do because I'm trying to cover chapters 4 through 24. There are 21 chapters coming up. And I'm going to flood information out there in a big confusing stream. So, what I want to do is see if we can find some sort of progressive development of what's going on, either speech by speech or level of speeches to level of speeches.

56. 21:04

    And so, first of all, let me just rearrange these a little bit. Now, the order is going to stay the same. I have no right to change the order of the speeches and say it didn't happen this way. The order, as far as I know, has to stay exactly the same. But I'm just going to change the line breaks.

57. 21:21

    So, instead of saying, let's consider this as round one, where everyone speaks the first time, and this is round two, and there's a spare speech on the end, let me just shuffle them, not shuffle, just reorder them, and not reorder, in fact, just change the breaks, to that. They're all in exactly the same order.

58. 21:38

    But I want to say that level one of the speeches is the first two, Eliphaz and Bildad for the first time. Level two is Zophar for the first time, with Eliphaz for the second time, and level three is a full trio. Why do I want to do that? Because that's where I see the breaks coming in the tone of the speeches, a very important fundamental parameter of the tone of each of these three levels.

59. 22:04

    Let me show you what those tones are, and then try and provide some evidence from the scriptures that that is indeed the case. In the first case, what I see Eliphaz and Bildad doing in chapters, you know, four, five, and eight, is they're making observations. They're making fairly innocent observations. Okay? At the second level, however, by the time you get to these third and fourth speeches, the comments made are interpretive.

60. 22:33

    It is interpretive comments that are made. And finally, by the third level, they are condemnations. Okay? Now, this is so important, I don't want to leave this in the abstract. So I want to try and think of some sort of example that I can give you, even if a facetious one, by which I can indicate what I mean in the differences of those three statements.

61. 22:56

    So I might say something like, here's an observation. I could say to Brother Barry, Brother Barry, I see that you're wearing a white shirt again. That's an observation. Okay? There's no interpretation placed upon the action itself. or I could say, at level two, I could make an interpretation about that observation. And I could say something like, Brother Barry, I am extremely disappointed to see that once again, you are inappropriately wearing a white shirt.

62. 23:32

    Okay? Notice that the, notice, and that sounds cunningly like an observation, doesn't it? Because who could deny it was white? Right? And ironically, I'm wearing a white one too. And that's true of these guys too. They're throwing things at Job. They should be throwing it themselves. But notice that's an interpretation. It's not just, I see a white shirt, but I have assumed it to be inappropriate to do so.

63. 23:54

    And I've commented on that. And finally, there's a condemnatory statement, which is something of the order of, Brother Barry, there's a real problem between us, I'm afraid, because once more, I notice you're inappropriately wearing a white shirt, and so I'm going to have to ask you to leave. And you go out and sort out the problem.

64. 24:12

    And when you've done sorting it out, maybe we can talk again. That's a condemnatory statement. It creates a divide. It even tries to impose some sort of sentence. And so those are the three very different philosophies that we see going on in the book of Job. And what I'd like to suggest to you is that that is what you see in this order.

65. 24:31

    Two observational speeches, two interpretative speeches, and then three condemnatory speeches. If that is true, and I'll provide the evidence, that would give us another reason to why Job interrupts right here. He's been condemned by all three of them. He doesn't need to hear any more. There's nothing more to say. All three of them, Bildad in chapter 18, Zophar in chapter 20, and Eliphaz in chapter 22, have all condemned him.

66. 24:57

    And then Bildad goes to speak again. And Job says, well, enough, enough. Come on. You've finished. What more can you say? You were done with observations long ago. You've all pronounced sentence. Let's stop. And they do. So let's look at a little bit of evidence for that. Observations, I suggest to you, in Eliphaz and Bildad's first speech.

67. 25:19

    And you can turn up your scriptures or not as you like. I don't know whether we're going to have time to look at too many in detail. Eliphaz praises Job's good works and uses them as an insurance of Job's final vindication in his first speech. And Bildad actually, likewise, in his first speech, also offers encouraging words and offers his testimony that he has seen Job behaving well.

68. 25:44

    So if I read, like, a little passage from Eliphaz's speech, Eliphaz says, let's see, well, actually, let's take it from Bildad's speech. Bildad says, surely God does not reject a blameless man or strengthen the hands of evildoers. That's not the observation I was looking for. Maybe I'll take it from, sorry, here we are, from Eliphaz.

69. 26:09

    Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands. Your words have supported those who stumbled. You have strengthened faltering knees. So he just makes some observations about, he says, Job, I know you. I see what you've been doing. These are good works. And so with the implication being, this is a puzzling situation you find yourself in.

70. 26:28

    So that's the first level. And the interesting thing is, what I want to look at is not only proving that there's observations in this section, but perhaps most importantly of all, what effect does that have on Job? And the effect that that has on Job in his responses to these two speeches is you see humility.

71. 26:48

    You still see despair. There's humility amid despair. That's the emotional reaction that the friends have been able to elicit from Job. Job recognizes his own sin in chapter 7 there. Job recognizes the guilt of all men in chapter 9. And he pleads to God for a recognition of his blamelessness in chapter 10.

72. 27:09

    So observations derive humility amid despair from Job. And Job's conclusion, if you look at the end of this section, if indeed you'll call this a section and I do, you'll see this kind of conclusive section. Indeed I know that these things are true, says Job. How can a mortal be righteous before his God?

73. 27:30

    So let's look at the first level of observational arguments. Let's step down now to a second level. You'll see I'm giving this a very brief treatment. But there are a lot of chapters here. By all means explore this at your length later. And let's look at Zophar's first speech and Eliphaz's second. And we're going to be looking for interpretive statements.

74. 27:49

    One of the key words to look for in an interpretive statement is the word because. It's not guaranteed to be there, but because is always a good indicator. When someone says to you, you know, if I were to say to you, yeah, you see, Barry, you see, he's wearing this white shirt because anything that follows is an interpretive statement because I'm trying to tell you that I know the motive of why he's doing it.

75. 28:15

    Okay, so look out for that dangerous word because. And here's the evidence that we have. Zophar declares Job's troubles are a direct consequence of his sin, and Eliphaz does likewise. And if you look at these two verses here, 1118 from Zophar and 1525 from Eliphaz, and we don't have time to turn them up now, you will see the presence of not only an observation, but an observation coupled using that dangerous word because to the reason why or the imputed reason why these things are seen the way they are.

76. 28:48

    So this is a more scathing line of attack that's taken against Job. And as a response, if you give sort of a negative interpretive arguments to someone, look what you get back in return. Job responds. He still hasn't gone wrong yet, but he responds with a form of self-justification. He does nothing but repeat his blamelessness and his righteousness.

77. 29:11

    And that's, of course, very dangerous territory to be in. But it's a dangerous territory that he's in because he's been pushed there by the interpretive arguments of his very poor friends. Job says, for example, now that I have prepared my case, I know I will be vindicated. In a way, he's right. But you can see already we're getting into very dangerous territory.

78. 29:34

    And his conclusion from this section, perhaps he's losing faith. Not in God. He's still trusting his God. But he's certainly losing faith in the ability of the humans to comfort him. I have heard many things like these, he says. Miserable comforters are you all. And it's a fair comment. But you can see he's really losing heart in the chances to be anything other than condemned by his friends.

79. 29:59

    And so that allows us to look at this level of speeches. And finally then, level three, the condemnatory speeches. And all three chip in here on this level in these chapters. Let's look at some of the language that they use to do that. Bildad and Zophar both hypothesize an evil man and use all of Job's calamities in their theoretical hypothesis, which isn't theoretical at all.

80. 30:22

    You remember Bildad's ridiculous statement that he says, you know what a wicked man often suffers from? Skin disease. And he sat there. He can visually see that Job has a skin disease. So what an absurd thing to say. It's a condemnatory statement. And Eliphaz just openly condemns Job before God in chapter 22, verses 5 to 11.

81. 30:41

    And maybe it's worth looking at that just since we haven't read a word for a little while. Job chapter 22. And if you just pick out some phrases from verses 5 to 11. Is not your wickedness great? Are not your sins endless? And then he lists a list of specific complaints which are all lies and contradictions to his comments in chapter 4.

82. 31:14

    And he rounds it up by in verse 10 there. That is why snares are all around you. Why sudden peril terrifies you. Why it is so dark you cannot see. And why a flood of waters cover you. So he has pronounced a verdict of condemnation upon Job. And the others do the same.

83. 31:33

    But look at the response that it gets from Job. If Job is condemned he is provoked not only to justify himself but also unfortunately to condemn his friends in return. Maybe in human terms with more justification. But that is what happens when he is condemned that way. He even kind of again starts to accuse God a little bit.

84. 31:56

    Job says if indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me then know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me. Dangerous words to say that God has wronged him. And at the end of that same chapter he comments to his friend he comments to his friends let's see in chapter 21 verse 27 he says I know full well what you are thinking the schemes by which you would wrong me have you never questioned those who travel have you paid no regard to their accounts this type of man he says in verse 32 is carried to the grave watch is kept over his tomb the soil in the valley is sweet to him and men follow after him so how can you console me with your nonsense nothing is left of your answers but falsehood and so he openly condemns them as liars before them.

85. 32:53

    So condemnation incites condemnation and I suppose the reason that we're doing all of this is because we need to examine ourselves particularly with the dialogue that we have with our brothers and sisters in general terms do we make innocent observations or are the observations that we make always loaded with those interpretive statements there you are in that inappropriate white shirt again that sort of thing is that the kind of thing that we do we need to think about our inter-ecclesial dialogue and think how to rinse off all of the condemnatory and even interpretive statements and stick to making observations that are helpful in learning to live together as a family who love each other and Job perhaps is even having his faith in God shaken when he says these words as surely as God lives who has denied me justice I will not deny my integrity I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live do you notice how well this matches one of the points that brother John Launchbury has been addressing in his classes do we change us or do we change God notice even Job has made that error he is essentially saying look I don't know what's happened in the relationship between me and God clearly something is badly wrong but I know I'm fine I know I'm okay God's gone a bit kind of wacky right now and when he sorts himself out will be okay again that's what these words say God has denied me justice but I will not deny my integrity look at the

86. 34:29

    personal pronouns I will maintain my righteousness and never let go of it my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live he's saying this much I know about I'm okay and so by implication it's God who needs to change and when God changes we'll be okay and that's perhaps quite an error and so those are the levels that we've looked at in this address so far observations cause Job to humbly despair interpretive statements cause Job to self-justify condemnatory statement cause Job to condemn himself and indeed he interrupts shortly thereafter and that's probably a pattern that's not so very different for you and for me in the ecclesias and in the families both spiritual and natural in which we live when we're aware of how these things cause the responses that they cause we realize that perhaps if someone is caused to be condemnatory they may well have been provoked to it by a condemnatory approach in the first place so it's worth knowing about these natural interrelations and I think we're taught them by this main sort of engine room dialogue of what it's like for a righteous man to struggle with his opponent particularly in tough times whether it's a natural wilderness as it was or whether it's a spiritual wilderness as in that case it also was and that introduces us in the last few minutes to the enigma of Elihu because after those speeches are concluded and Job finishes up in comes this unusual man but let's just see that we understand how the speech is finished because Job goes on to give two very long speeches after he cuts off

87. 36:23

    Bildad and it's worth seeing how that speech finishes to understand exactly who Elihu was and why it was absolutely essential that God raised him up to speak here's how it finishes Job is speaking I sign now my defense let the almighty answer me let my accuser hmm interesting that would be the word Satan and he's obviously referring to God let my accuser put his indictment in writing okay this is not the word Satan in Hebrew by the way I'm saying it is akin to that same theme okay what what is that in modern language we would use this strange word here the subpoena Job has subpoenaed God he said I have a case I have a complaint I require that you come down here and answer this case because I believe that I am suffering inappropriately and unjustly and justice has been denied me realize then how essential is Elihu why this is the one thing I want to make a strange point God now cannot answer now if you ever say God cannot you know you've made a mistake so I put cannot in quotes God now what I mean is certainly will not answer because he will not give credence to the misconception to the error that the creator is answerable to his creation Job has subpoenaed him he signed and sealed the envelope he sent it up to heaven and say God I want you here Thursday morning ten o'clock don't be late and wear a tie you need to answer a case God isn't going to show because God cannot give credence to that misconception that's what we learn I am

88. 38:15

    that I am is by definition unconstrained he is not answerable he does not have appointments that he must keep that are dictated to him by us or anybody or anything else so Job has actually put himself into a hole by subpoenaing God God will not answer him and he is stuck no answer is ever going to come and Job is going to die in afflicted silence but God has raised up a helper for Job and I think that's how we need to see Elihu because what Elihu does what his work is is to release Job from having sent that subpoena to destroy the subpoena to help Job see that the subpoena cannot be and he cannot send it and once Job acknowledges that that will not go why then God can speak to Job so let's see how that works in other words I want to understand Elihu and I'll need some evidence to do this as a type of John the Baptist as a type of messenger who goes before this is the famous quote from Malachi see I will send my messenger who will prepare the way before me then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple the messenger of the covenant whom you desire will come says the Lord Almighty again I want to resonate from Brother John's talks this is not that God needed Elihu before God was able to speak God can speak at any time Job needed Elihu before Job could understand that one cannot subpoena the creator that's the point it was Job who had the need that Elihu fulfilled let's see how that works

89. 40:03

    let's see some examples of this in action straightening the way a voice of one calling in the desert prepare the way for the Lord make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God this is the principle every valley shall be raised up every mountain and hill made low the rough ground made level and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all mankind will see it let's see how Elihu does that no let's see how John the Baptist does that because we're going to find a little comparison here which is rather nice and helps strengthen the argument this is what John the Baptist says when he comes repent for the kingdom of heaven is near and he says by the way I'm fulfilling that quote in Isaiah that we've just read okay and when Jesus comes how interesting from that time on this is just in the next chapter Matthew 3 to 4 from that time on Jesus began to preach repent for the kingdom of heaven is near look at that Jesus says exactly the same words that John the Baptist says is it true to say that Jesus is quoting John the Baptist no it is not that's false the Messiah does not quote from the messenger what these are the words of God these are the words of Messiah but the messenger sent beforehand has correctly had them planted within him or has correctly anticipated them with the resonant spirit given to him to announce the coming so John has quoted Jesus beforehand as it were even before Jesus spoke it's important to realize the words of God come from the

90. 41:46

    one who speaks God's words even though they're quoted beforehand by John the Baptist and interestingly I'll always like this because if John the Baptist is a form of Elihu remember John the Baptist came later John the Baptist who have known his scriptures would know that he was a form of Elihu isn't it interesting that it's John the Baptist who says to the Pharisees do not think you can say to yourselves we have Abraham as our father it's your conduct that matters to paraphrase the latter why would John the Baptist think to say that unless he saw the parallel with the book of those who really could say we have Abraham as our father and yet we're condemning the wrong man just as the Pharisees of John the Baptist day would say we have Abraham as our father no good thing comes out of Nazareth and I think that's why John the Baptist is mindful of that particular thing so here we go and this is now Elihu speaking this excuse me this is Elihu these are Job's words we're going to see how Elihu works to release Job from his self-trapping subpoena that he sent by correcting Job then he allows Job to hear the words of God that will be spoken Job's error was God does not listen or respond that's what his final complaint was and as Elihu starts speaking a storm is building up physically literally so it's quite a dramatic event they're probably set outside if it's the ash heap whether it's the rubbish heap or the remains of his children's home either way they're outdoors and a storm is building

91. 43:27

    they can hear the thunder pounding in the background it's a very dramatic scene oh that I had someone to hear me Job is saying God doesn't listen Elihu has

92. 43:39

    complained to God that he answers none of man's words God does speak now one way now another though man may not perceive it he's made that wonderful correction it's not God that needs to change God doesn't need to learn how to speak we need to learn how to listen change us not God that's the message that Elihu does in delivering the preparation of the way a second example Job is justified before God that's how Job sees it I will never deny my integrity I'm okay God needs to change Elihu straightens the way no it is God that is justified before Job Elihu became very angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God interesting Elihu picks up the same emotions God does we can see he's resonant with the father in this respect it is unthinkable that God would do wrong says Elihu that the almighty would pervert the justice that Job claims he has been denied and finally and this is our final slide as the storm is building up heavier and heavier Elihu just as John the Baptist manages to duplicate ahead of time some of the words of almighty God himself not that God ends up quoting Elihu you understand God speaks his words but Elihu as the messenger sent beforehand has correctly anticipated the words of the almighty father so this is Elihu and not God who is speaking listen to this Job stop and consider God's wonders do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash and I'm sure Elihu is assisted in making this comparison by the fact that the lightning is flashing as he is

93. 45:25

    speaking because the storm has come physically the text tells us so can you Job join God in spreading out the skies hard as a mirror of cast bronze he has correctly anticipated what God's words will be where were you says the almighty father when I laid the earth's foundations can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water do you send the lightning bolts on their way that is what God will say anticipated by the messenger sent beforehand and now the subpoena is crushed now God has been justified before Job and Job has been released from the hole that he dug himself in and he is now able to hear the words of the almighty father that he will speak to him and as the thunder rumbles and the lightning flashes and cracks

94. 46:26

    God himself speaks