John Pople - Class 6: Salvation

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

1. 0:00

   Good morning. Good morning, Brother John. So, salvation. I'm very glad to see this picture here. I'm very grateful to Brother Dennis, Brother Scott, who've really helped make this presentation work, not only for myself, but for the other two speakers as well, no doubt. I'm very indebted to them for being able to do that.

2. 0:20

   And not only that, but as you'll have learned from just last night, neither myself nor Brother John can go more than 60 seconds without some sort of visual prompt to help us along. So, it's good to see that here. So then, salvation. We've reached the point where Job has been restored. Not physically yet. Not physically. He still has all of his physical afflictions.

3. 0:43

   But he has seen the love of God. Not that it hasn't been there before, but it had previously escaped his view. Understandably, given what he was going through, he couldn't see what on earth he was suffering for. And now, from the speeches of God, which we won't recapitulate from yesterday, he's seen what God was doing and the salvation that he was working.

4. 1:02

   And what we want to do is look explicitly about what effects that salvation had, how it actually worked, both in his life and the life of his friends. So, this is where we left off yesterday. We asked ourselves, well, if Behemoth and Leviathan are supposed to be one and the same beast, why is it shown as two beasts in the first instance?

5. 1:21

   And we remembered that verse from back in Genesis 41, where Joseph explains to Pharaoh, yeah, well, you saw two visions, you saw two forms, but it was actually one and the same dream. And the reason God showed it twice is because the matter has been firmly decided by him, and because God will do it soon.

6. 1:42

   So, what we anticipate from that is that judgment on the beast, Leviathan, Satan, whatever, is very soon to follow. We've already identified Satan earlier in this week as the spirit with which the three friends spoke, essentially human pride, with which the three friends were badly infected, and with which during that debate, during that struggle with a righteous man in the wilderness, even the righteous man came to be partially infected before God swooped down and saved him.

7. 2:09

   And God has told Job, only the word of God can tame that sort of beast and win. That was what the message of the speeches contained, amongst other things. Just a brief aside, I find it interesting, this is a very old painting by William Blake, and you can see here, this is supposed to be God, and he's represented Behemoth here and Leviathan.

8. 2:30

   And he's shown those pictures very much as two halves. He's even drawn a very clear circle around the two beasts, that he sees it as two halves of the same whole. Not that that's particularly important, but I wonder if Blake himself even came to the same realization, that the two beasts represented one and the same thing.

9. 2:48

   It's no big deal, but that's just an interesting aside. So then, judgment on the beast. And this judgment that falls on the beast, this rebuke that will fall, has actually been pending for a very long time, and this is only one of its realizations that we meet in the book of Job. It's actually ever since Genesis 3 that promise came, that one would crush the head of Satan, that spirit which began to oppose God and bring slanderous accusations against the righteous.

10. 3:16

    Someone will destroy the beast. That's Genesis 3.15, the seed of the woman, whoever that would be. Nevertheless, what we've met in Job, just to see the big full Bible picture of this pattern, is that no man can destroy the beast. That's why God started it with the natural creation in that first speech, saying, look at all these wild beasts, they're just out of your control.

11. 3:35

    And then goes on to the second speech in the spiritual creation, the wild beast, human pride, is completely out of control, and no man can tame it, only the word of God can. So then when we come to the Gospels, we have this strange dichotomy to address, that Jesus destroys the beast. Now, where you say that happens, I don't really mind.

12. 3:57

    There's a few places you could identify. You could say it was chapter 4, I've chosen Luke's Gospel, where Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, that he overcame and overthrew the devil. And that's true enough. You could say, and this would be my favorite choice probably, chapter 22, that it was in Gethsemane, that the devil was finally destroyed, and the fatal blow was inflicted upon him.

13. 4:17

    Or you could say it happened on the cross, or you could say it happened at the crucifixion. Any of those interpretations I'm comfortable with. What is a problem, seemingly, is that there is a contradiction between the Gospel message and Job, at least on the surface. Job says no man can destroy the beast, and Jesus, who was a man made exactly like us, does destroy the beast.

14. 4:40

    How is that possible? And the resolution comes, we can determine it just from that, or we can allow the Apostle John to tell us, Jesus is the Word of God. In fact, these three Scriptures themselves, even without this Gospel message, would be enough for us to construct. Given what was said in Genesis, by God, given what was said in Job, by God, and given what Jesus did, if no man, only the Word of God, can destroy the beast, why then Jesus must be the Word of God.

15. 5:11

    So it's rather nice to see that internal consistency that Scripture has, preaching the same message from every different angle. Why then can we not destroy the beast, if Jesus was made like as we are, and He did it, because, as our brother John has been showing, sin is so damaging, we can no longer realize that full potential to be the Word of God.

16. 5:34

    We cannot be the explicit embodiment of the Word of God any longer, because sin has permanently damaged us. And the more we sin, the more we lower the bar of potential that ever we can hope to raise. Jesus, however, did not sin, and therefore was able to realize that full potential. And judgment on the beast most certainly does come.

17. 5:58

    I am angry with you and your two friends, says God, and we've read these words before. And now my servant Job will sacrifice a burnt offering for you. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer, and not deal with you according to your folly. Now this might raise an interesting question, particularly given the classes we've been hearing from Brother John, where Brother John has been telling us that intercession does not come as a righteous man between an angry God and between those who are suffering his dissaver.

18. 6:34

    Now God is angry at this point. We know. He says so. And Job is the mediator, so it seems, between those that God will not consider at this time and God himself. Okay? Job does seem to intercede for his friends. But let's make sure we understand exactly what's going on here, and we'll find it's in harmony with what Brother John is teaching in his Principles of Salvation class.

19. 7:02

    This is all God's idea. This is God's plan of salvation. This wasn't Job's idea. And what God is doing is he is teaching those three friends, he said, look, you have rejected Job. I've heard your speeches. I've heard what you've been saying. You have rejected your brother Job. So I am deliberately setting a plan of salvation for you that will be contingent upon Job accepting you.

20. 7:31

    I am empowering Job to be your judge in this matter. I am empowering him to pray for you. And only if Job decides, yes, I will pray for you, will you be able to be restored to my favor. So it's not that Job is interceding, that God won't, that this is Job's plan because God just won't deal with the three friends.

21. 7:52

    It's that God has devised a plan of salvation for them, but it does contain that necessary twist that they must reconcile with Job, and Job must forgive them, which of course he does, since he is a righteous and blameless man. That's interesting how, therefore, judgment falls on Leviathan at that time. As for Job, he speaks that which is right of God, and we expanded on this very much in the first class.

22. 8:18

    He says, I know that you can do all things that no plan of yours can be thwarted. You said, who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge? Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know, and I want to focus on this passage I've underlined here.

23. 8:35

    Job says, My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. Think about the last line and the next slide, but for now, my ears have heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. No man has seen God, but Job is saying that he has.

24. 8:53

    What is it then that Job's seen that makes him say that he's seen God? One possible answer is it's just a metaphor. And it could well be. He's just saying, My experience of you is now so much closer and so much more tangible than ever it was before. It's like I was only, I only heard you talking, like when you hear a friend's voice behind you.

25. 9:15

    But you turn around and see your friend and you have a more direct connection with them. Or it could be that what Job is saying is I'm looking at myself and I saw myself infected with pride and I saw the effect you had on me. And when I see that my pride has been removed, I have seen the hand of God in my life.

26. 9:39

    I have seen it. I have lived it. I have felt it. So it may be that experience that he's describing in that line. Either way, it's good to muse upon. And Job understands that God's speeches were therefore motivated by love to save him. Job was in the jaws of Leviathan about to be consumed by pride when God interceded between him and his potential sin and snatched him out of the jaws of the beast because he was that valuable thing that God loved.

27. 10:11

    And now Job's experience of God is more complete. He's able to be restored to a joyful state. Here's an interesting phrase. This is one thing that still remained challenging to me even into this year about the book of Job because I just did not understand this last line. This is Job speaking. My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.

28. 10:36

    Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. It just didn't seem to be the right tone. Why would Job be so upset? I could understand why he would despise himself because he's been sat there saying, God, why are you mistreating me all this time? And now he's seen that God was actually working salvation for his friends through his experience.

29. 11:02

    So he could see it was a work of love and Job will also benefit from that work himself and we'll see tangibly how that works in just a minute. But why would he then repent in dust and ashes? It really doesn't make any sense. What I'd like to suggest to you, and I realize this is going out on a limb more than a little, is that that translation is wrong.

30. 11:22

    I don't care what version of the Bible you are reading, I would like to suggest to you that that sentence has been mistranslated and I will proffer for you a different translation of that last line, which I think is important. First, let's look at the Hebrew and I need to walk gently in the presence of those who know a great deal more about this than I do.

31. 11:43

    And there, interestingly, is actually a Hebrew fragment of Job chapter 42, which you can view if you want in a natural history museum in Oxford in the United Kingdom. And this line, therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes, is many English words. It only has four Hebrew words, accepting the therefore, throw the therefore away.

32. 12:02

    It only has four Hebrew words. It has the words, I've put them in English. It has disgust, phrased in a reflexive form, that means he's disgusted with himself, disgust, repent, dust, ashes. Those are the only four words that are actually there in the original text. These last two are very similar. The Hebrew words afer and efer, I think they are, are very similar for dust and ashes, makes sense, because they're very similar substances.

33. 12:30

    And so, to say, to translate this as, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes, seems very normal, seems very natural, and I would translate it that way myself, without any context. But given the context of the story of Job, perhaps we can see, I think, what Job is really saying, that has been mistranslated all these years.

34. 12:52

    Where is Job when he speaks these words? I hear vague muttering, help me out. He's in the dust and ashes. He's sat on the trash heap, maybe the remains of his children's house, or maybe the burn pile of his ranch. Either way, he is sat in dust and ashes. Why is he sat in dust and ashes?

35. 13:21

    I believe it's because he's making a slightly embittered point that God treats him like trash. That's the point he's been making all this time. That he feels so afflicted, so mistreated, so unjustly treated, that he says, well if God has just trashed my life and treated me like trash, I guess I belong on the trash pile.

36. 13:50

    And he just sits in the dust and ashes. And we know from the scriptures that all of these conversations and these dialogues that are taking place between Job and his three friends are done from the context of Job just sitting in the ashes. Because he's just so overwhelmed by the way that God has apparently mistreated him.

37. 14:13

    And finally, the speeches of God reveal to him that he has been used as a very valuable instrument, as a precious possession of the Lord God, as a priest and a savior for the three friends that otherwise would not have been saved. So he must feel so stupid. He's been sat here for a couple of months giving a living testimony of how God has mistreated him.

38. 14:43

    He suddenly realizes he isn't unloved but he is deeply loved by God and chosen for a great and special purpose. And I expect he jumps up off there and says, oh, I feel so stupid. Fancy sitting there. Therefore, I despise myself and repent of dust and ashes.

39. 15:08

    Self-disgust. Repent, dust, ashes. Absolutely. And that's what I've written in the margin of my Bible. That he has repented of dust and ashes where he's been sat for months complaining about the way God has treated him. And now finally, he has seen and experienced the love of God and he has changed his view of God and he's got off the ashes heap and he's not going to sit there anymore.

40. 15:35

    That I suggest to you for your own consideration. Investigate the lexicons and the dictionaries that give you the Hebrew words and I think you'll find that that is justifiable in what I'm saying. We also have the continuing enigma of that strangest character Elihu. Because you think about Elihu and you think, what happened to him?

41. 15:57

    Clearly he wasn't a Satan because he wasn't included in the judgment. God did judge Leviathan. And he says to Eliphaz, I am angry with you and your two friends. And Elihu is not included among them. God is not going to rebuke three out of four Satans. So we're still confident that Elihu was indeed a good character.

42. 16:17

    But why was he not praised as Job was? If indeed he was a good character, why does he not receive honorable mention? He doesn't receive any mention at all. Satan, we saw, seemed to fall out of the book of Job in chapter two, but actually he was there throughout. We just learned to look for him by his real names, as it were.

43. 16:39

    But Elihu really does disappear. And what was it that we said Elihu was? We tried to reason that Elihu was a form of John the Baptist. He was the herald. He was the one who went before to prepare the way to introduce the word of God. So if we look at the life of John the Baptist, we might be able to find a clue in terms of what John the Baptist said to figure out why Elihu has disappeared from the text.

44. 17:10

    It is the nature of the herald to diminish when his job is done. That's not my idea, that's scripture. John the Baptist answered and said, he who has the bride is the bridegroom, speaking of Christ of course, but the friend of the bridegroom rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore, this joy of mine is fulfilled.

45. 17:35

    Now Jesus has come. He, Jesus, must increase, but I must decrease. And so John the Baptist slips gently out of the text, not to be seen again. He is not given some great reward or fanfare because he was the one who himself blew the fanfare for Jesus Christ. It is the nature of the herald to diminish.

46. 17:58

    And to some extent, that's true for us too. We read in the words of Jesus in Luke 17, so you also, even when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, we are unworthy servants. We have only done our duty. In other words, we should look on our discipleships as not some work of great value which God should very rightly reward at the end of time, but rather simply a privilege and a pleasure to be included in God's plan and something which is its own reward to have performed as we perform it.

47. 18:33

    We are rewarded every day by being disciples. We are not disciples in order that we will be rewarded at a later time. And Elihu then, I think, very well fulfills this same thing. Elihu, as John the Baptist, has diminished so that the one he introduced, in this case Almighty God, can be appropriately augmented in our focused attention at the end of the book of Job.

48. 19:00

    So in actual fact, Elihu disappearing from the text, seemingly without explanation, is further support to interpret him as a John the Baptist type herald who came to introduce the words of God and released Job from that silly subpoena that he'd set up, which meant that God was not going to respond to him.

49. 19:21

    Let's turn to the theme then that we've identified throughout this week in the book of Job, the idea of temptation in the wilderness. If we look at the New Testament, we find at the start of Matthew chapter 4 or Luke chapter 4, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

50. 19:41

    And that's where we see the book of Job. Here's a quote from the Pentateuch, the Lord replied, no one who has treated me with contempt will ever see the promised land. Turn back tomorrow. And he turns them back from the promised land, and that's where the wilderness wandering starts. And we did in one of our classes try to identify the chronology of the book of Job as within that wilderness wandering, and specifically towards the end.

51. 20:06

    If Deuteronomy 28, which matches Job's condition so well and matches the friend's interpretation, misinterpretation of Job's condition so well is ringing in their ears, why we're within the last one or two years of those 40 years in the desert. Nevertheless, they're sent by God. It is God's directive that they go into the desert, and there in the desert, a righteous man is tempted by being handed over to Satan, at least temporarily.

52. 20:35

    So it foreshadows the temptation in the wilderness. You might say, well, so what? I've got the temptation in the wilderness for real in my New Testament scriptures. Why would I care that there's supposed to be some pale shadow hiding in the Old Testament? And I think the reason is that this book of Job probably proved good counsel for Jesus Christ.

53. 20:56

    Remember, Jesus was a man like us. He needed help. He needed advice. He knew his father's will. He knew he had to be tempted in the wilderness. What scriptures should I read, says Jesus? Of course, he can read about the wilderness wanderings of Israel. I believe, and I cannot prove, but I believe Jesus read the book of Job in deliberate and specific preparation to be tempted in the wilderness, because that's what Job is about.

54. 21:25

    The book of Job is not so much about learning to cope with suffering. It's about learning to cope with being tempted in the wilderness, the temptations between Satan and a righteous man. And I think they proved good counsel for the Lord Jesus. And we'll see then a little bit of evidence that that may indeed be the case.

55. 21:45

    Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. And here is Jesus. Here is the word of God fighting the beast. He's tempted to turn the stones into bread. And Brother John said in his class, it's kind of difficult to envisage that that would have been a specific sin, just to provide food for a hungry man.

56. 22:07

    But Jesus, and I would agree, that Jesus takes the highest available road. If he is to emulate the character and personality of God, it's not about saying, well, here's the line of sin, and isn't this how, well, this is how I behave sometimes. I can't speak for you. But you say, well, here's the division, and anything below this line is sin.

57. 22:28

    So if my conduct comes in at grazing incidents four millionths of an inch higher than this line, I'm okay. That's okay. I'm not sinning. That's not what Jesus does. He finds the highest available form of behavior. We conduct our lives sometimes, don't we, by saying, well, okay, this platform defines acceptable behavior, so I could live my life like this.

58. 22:54

    And look, I'm not sinning. See, I'm not sinning at all. And then some bad day happens, and oh. And then how we are kind to ourselves. Oh, I stumbled. I did. I stumbled, and I really did. But I have to ask myself, if I'd have been standing here, would I have stumbled off the edge?

59. 23:18

    Part of the reason that I stumble, when I stumble, is because I choose to live my life right on the threshold of where sin is. man begins to meet me. And this is what Jesus is really teaching about how to fight Satan in the wilderness. Take the highest available plane. It is written, man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

60. 23:41

    He's quoting Deuteronomy. In fact, he's always quoting Deuteronomy. And with what book of the Bible have we reasoned Deuteronomy was contemporary? Job. Job. So I think he's been reading Job. And that's why he's been reading Job and other contemporary works. And that's why he ends up, in each case, quoting the book of Deuteronomy, knowing that it's the words of God being on his mouth and in his mind and in his heart, which is the only thing that can destroy the devil against which he is pitted.

61. 24:16

    He knows the word of God can defeat the beast, and he quotes those from the time of Job. And interestingly, because Jesus prevails, this is a proof that he is the word of God. We said that already, in fact. Moving on then, let's have a look, a little look at a comparison between how Jesus fights Satan in the wilderness and how Job fought Satan in the wilderness.

62. 24:41

    And we'll see a couple of comparisons and also a couple of differences. Now, at no time am I trying to set Job in a poor light. Please make that perfectly clear. Job, the amazing disciple that is Job, absolutely astonishes me. The fact that he could have heard those two speeches from God, and even after just one hearing, understood what God was saying about the spiritual creation and the nature of the beast, just amazes me.

63. 25:10

    I literally went decades having no real clue what God was saying, knowing that God was saying something, trusting that God was saying something, but having no real idea that God was saying anything more than, I'm great, you're not. I knew that wasn't the answer, but I couldn't possibly see what it was. So Job is an astonishing man.

64. 25:30

    Nevertheless, when set against the Lord Jesus Christ, we all look a little short of stature. Man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God. How can a mortal be righteous before God? They both start off well. This is the end of the first round of speeches. But here's where it starts to get different.

65. 25:47

    Do not put the Lord your God to the test, and most critically, away from me, Satan. Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. That's where Jesus says, I seem to be a little close to the edge here, then I'm just going to create extra distance between myself and temptation. Whereas Job says the opposite, and this is maybe the beginning of his downfall in wrestling with Satan.

66. 26:12

    He actually says to his friends, come on all of you, try again. I know I have truth on my side, so why don't you just try and bring any argument against me? I can overcome it. That's a dangerous route to take in the face of temptation. As an older and wiser brother once said to me, he said simply, don't toy with sin.

67. 26:33

    Don't play with it. Don't have it close at hand. Because in a moment of weakness, you can take grasp of it because it's right there. If it's thrust away from you, even in a moment of weakness, your chances of calamity are much less because it's simply further away. It's a greater distance you have to overcome to get to the sin that you might suddenly desire.

68. 26:54

    And so finally, that's why Job ends up perhaps justifying himself in actual having fallen victim to the very pride that he tried to oppose. So Job was overpowered by Leviathan. That was a righteous man, not a perfect man, but a righteous man struggling with Satan in the wilderness. But he was rescued by God, by God's speeches.

69. 27:15

    And Jesus overpowered Leviathan not by justifying himself, but by speaking of and enacting God's greatness and supremacy. What does this outcome show? As we've said, this is not an indictment of Job. Even God's speeches didn't indict Job. God's speeches were designed to illuminate Job and bring about his salvation. It is evidence of the power of the beast over all men, including you and me.

70. 27:40

    And that's why the book of Job must become very relevant to us in terms of resisting temptation. And it is evidence of the superlative saving power of Jesus Christ. And the book of Job serves as a kind of education or a protocol to us for what to do and not to do in times when we are attacked, when we are provoked, when we're slandered, and when we're tempted.

71. 28:00

    And that's some things that happen to all of us, both within community life and outside of community life in the world. So it's a very important book.

72. 28:11

    Here's a new aspect we need to consider, and that is the idea of Job being the priest. There's some beautiful things in here I want us to look at. The priest, God, looked down from heaven and he saw in Job a man who could bring salvation to his three friends. So what was it that Job saw?

73. 28:31

    Because if you're anything like me, you have friends that you would desperately desire to see embrace salvation. So I would love it if God were to look down from heaven and say, ah, there's a guy I can use. What particular characteristics did Job have that made God say, that's one I can use?

74. 28:52

    And here, perhaps, is a clue. What's central to Job's thoughts is the salvation of others? And it is normal for this to be the case. This man, Job, was regularly dedicated to atoning or sacrificing for the ones that he loved. What is that? This little throwaway line. first of all, you have the main thought.

75. 29:16

    Job, perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. This was Job's regular custom. You know what that reminds me of? It's Jesus going to the Mount of Olives to pray. Not just that he went there, but Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives and his disciples followed him.

76. 29:34

    The fact that it's a man who is regularly accustomed to prayer, who is regularly accustomed to the atonement of other people. This is the type of man that God can use in the salvation of others. So I must challenge myself. Truly, am I regularly involved in praying, in praying to my God to spare those that I love and to give me opportunities by which I can start to bring them to a hope of salvation?

77. 30:02

    Am I that type of man? Because if Job is, then he was one who was chosen for that reason. And I would like to suggest to you also, by some evidence in the book of Job, that Job is chosen as a priest after the order of Melchizedek. What are the criteria that one has to satisfy to be a line of that very special priesthood?

78. 30:23

    This is what Hebrews says. It's the type of person who has no father or mother. That's kind of crazy. All that means, I don't think Melchizedek had no human physical parents. All that's saying is he appears in the scriptural record, just pops out of nowhere. You don't know his genealogy. Without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God.

79. 30:46

    And of course, it was ultimately true for the Son of God because the Son of God really did have no human father. And I think Job is presented to us in this way. Why? Because even the Hebrew word, Eob, or Eov, means, according to vines, where is my father? Or without father. Later interpretations of this word have made it mean hated or persecuted.

80. 31:10

    But I think that really comes from people knowing the story of Job and then attributing those interpretations afterwards. Older interpretations of the name Eob were where is my father? Or without father. It was the man with no genealogy. That's backed up very much in the book of Job. Do you remember how everyone else is always introduced by their kind of family history?

81. 31:30

    It's always Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuite, Zophar the Naamethite, Elihu the Buzzite, and Job the Job. Right? He's just Job. The man with no father. So I think that's very strongly stressed that Job has no available or no apparent human history. Just like a priest after the order of Melchizedek would do.

82. 31:56

    In fact, if I can stretch a point mathematically and have a look at the opening chapter of Job, here's one thing to notice. And I might be going a little too far on this point, but it's not a big deal either way. You see in the opening verses it even tells us how much cattle he's got.

83. 32:17

    Now why would you need to know that? The one thing I can't help noticing is all his possessions are based off prime numbers. Isn't that interesting? He has three daughters. He has seven sons. He has 7,000 sheep. Now 7,000 isn't a prime number of 7,000, but it's off the seven. 7,000 sheep, 500 oxen, 500 donkeys, and 3,000 camels.

84. 32:46

    Threes, fives, and sevens. Just threes, fives, and sevens. All prime numbers. If you know what a prime number is, it's a number that has no factors. It's a number that has no parents, if you like. Think of the number 6. You can say, ah, yeah, well if you take 2 and 3 and combine them together, multiply them together, 2 times 3 gives you the product 6.

85. 33:05

    So you can see 2 and 3 as the factors, or the parents, in a metaphorical sense, of the number 6. But certain numbers have no parents. 7 doesn't come from multiplying any two counting numbers together. Nor does 5, nor does 3. And all of Job's possessions are based on prime numbers. Threes, and fives, and sevens.

86. 33:25

    And I think that may also even be trying to give the flavor of, here is a man who has no origin, apparently, as far as you'll ever meet him. He is indeed a priest after the order of Melchizedek. And here's then something that's told about the priest. Why do we bother to establish that?

87. 33:41

    Why would we care? Because there's something about the priests after the order of Melchizedek that we need to know to find out why the suffering of Job was of any use to Job. Although this is specifically talking about Jesus, but more broadly, those who are priests in the order of Melchizedek. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered.

88. 34:06

    And once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek. That teaches us a very interesting thing about obedience. Was Jesus always obedient? Yes or no? Yes. I would say no.

89. 34:31

    Was Jesus ever disobedient to God? Now no one wants to say anything. Was Jesus ever disobedient to God? No. No. I would say no. The point is, there's much more to obedience than just not sinning. Sinning is disobedience. Jesus never sinned. Jesus was never disobedient. But obedience is not just not being disobedient.

90. 34:58

    Obedience is actually realizing the will of your father. If my father goes away for the weekend and he leaves me a written to-do list of what chores I should achieve, it might say, mow the lawn. Okay, fine. I need to go look for a lawnmower. I find a lawnmower. I don't know how it works.

91. 35:17

    I start playing with it. I'm learning all the time to be obedient. Obedience is a growth process. Jesus wasn't born perfectly obedient. He was never disobedient. But obedience is a growth process that you grow into, that he learned. And he learned obedience. If Jesus was always obedient, this verse must be wrong. Because he would have nothing to learn.

92. 35:44

    Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered as a priest after the order of Melchizedek. And so did Job. He learned the will of God. He learned how to perform the will of God better by going through the sufferings that he went through. And so then that prompts the question, what was it Job learned?

93. 36:01

    Even if Job never sinned, of course he did as a mortal man, but in the book of Job we don't read about that at the beginning. What was wrong with Job? What was insufficient in his obedience? And I'd like to suggest a very practical answer. Job served God primarily out of fear. He feared God.

94. 36:23

    He always did what was right. He was blameless and upright, a man who feared God and eschewed evil. That's the scriptural quote. In fact, even when disaster strikes him, he says, I always knew God was going to do this. What I feared has come upon me. What I dreaded has happened to me.

95. 36:45

    Let me also read that verse that's identified in chapter 31. Because it says the same thing. Chapter 31. I'll go in for a little context. If I have raised my hand against the fatherless, knowing that I had influence in court, then let my arm fall from the shoulder. Let it be broken off at the joint.

96. 37:07

    For I dreaded destruction from God. And for fear of his splendor, I could not do such things. And you might say, well, what kind of God, what kind of God would bring destruction on a man who spent his life fearing destruction? That sounds like a cruel God. I don't think so. Imagine you're a parent.

97. 37:27

    Some of you won't need to imagine, of course. You're a parent, and you have a son or a daughter who lives in constant fear and terror of you. I've got to tidy my room, because if I don't, I'm going to be blasted. I'm going to be beaten to a pulp. If you love that child, as God doubtless loved Job, God must have looked down from heaven and said, Job, that's no way to live.

98. 37:52

    You fear me, and you always do what is right, but you do it out of terror. Do I want my children to live out of terror? And that's the education that Job gets, specifically through his sufferings, that he learns to serve God out of a sense of trust and love, not just out of fear.

99. 38:13

    Early in the morning, Job would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. He was a good man, and righteous and upright. But when Jesus performed intercession, I pray for these that you have given me, Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, in order that the love you have for me may be in them, and that I myself may be of them.

100. 38:39

     There's the man who served out of a sense of love. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Job was on the right path, but he was stuck not very far down the path, in the position of serving God primarily out of fear. That's what the suffering of Job did for Job.

101. 38:58

     God says, I want to advance you down that path for your own enjoyment. Fancy serving me out of a constant sense of fear. I don't want you to live that way, Job, because I love you. So I'm going to put you through a rather tough experience, but on the far side of that experience, you'll serve me out of a sense of love.

102. 39:20

     There is no fear in love, says John. Perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. Job says that. He says, I feared this punishment. I feared God was going to do this. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. And whilst we sin, of course, we have reason to fear punishment.

103. 39:39

     So anyone who is not completely sinless cannot be completed in love. And so you and I are not completed in love. But we must drive towards the idea of serving God out of a sense of trust, that He loves us, that He's not looking for every opportunity to smack us every time we put a foot out of line.

104. 39:57

     That is not His driving emotion. And those of you who are parents should know that very clearly with the children that you have. And finally, Job reaches restoration. After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as He had had before. You know what?

105. 40:14

     I bet there was still one thing that bothered Job. He still had ten dead children. You're not going to get over that kind of pain in a hurry. No matter however else you've been restored, no matter whatever else you perceive about the love of God, that's still going to hurt. And I think God gives Job a piece of comfort and solace particularly, which is given to us very clearly in the arithmetic of his restoration that allows us to understand something which will comfort Job in that loss.

106. 40:48

     Job had 500 donkeys. He got twice as much. Two times 500 is 1,000. Same for the oxen. He had 3,000 camels. But afterwards, he had 6,000 camels. Twice as much. He had 7,000 sheep. But afterwards, he had 14,000 sheep. Twice as much. He had three daughters. And afterwards, he had three daughters. That's not twice as much.

107. 41:14

     And he had seven sons. And afterwards, he had seven sons. So unfortunately, God cheated him on the sons and daughters. But other than that, he got twice as much. Pity he got shortchanged on this really because these were probably the most important to him. And I'm suspecting that he'd have happily given up quite a few of those sheep to have a full restoration of sons and daughters.

108. 41:35

     These are the ones that he lost. And this is what he gained afterwards. How can we understand these numbers that don't match properly? They don't match properly either because God is a cheat and he shortchanged Job or because he was sending him the message that while the flocks and herds really were destroyed and he was given twice as many, his children were not.

109. 41:59

     And we can understand it was a wonderful guarantee to Job that whilst he would not enjoy their company at this time, he had 14 sons who were alive to God. And he had 6 daughters who were alive to God. It's not that they survived the affliction that came upon him. But it's a guarantee to Job of their eternal salvation and life.

110. 42:20

     And that must be some, and that's a consolation that we've all been bereaved by those that we love. And this is the consolation I think these numbers prove the message to Job with good confidence that he could say his sons and daughters. And so this also tells us his sons and daughters were good people.

111. 42:37

     They were good disciples of their God. Often because of those details about the feasting in the opening chapter, people speculate that these are some sort of wild orgy. I don't think so. I think these were religious ceremonies to the Lord God. And Job sent and performed a holy convocation at the end of those ceremonies in terms of the sacrifice and the purification.

112. 42:56

     His children will be in the kingdom, his original children. And so these numbers give great solace, I think, to Job that he has been bereaved no more than any other man has, that his children are alive to God and will live again.

113. 43:14

     One last question. Did Job win or lose on the biggest scale of all? In all this fighting, people come up to you and say, well, I hear there's a man who got tested by God, but did he actually win or did he lose? It's important to realize there are two separate battles in the book of Job.

114. 43:29

     There is this wager between God's insight and Satan's insight about the character of Job. Job's a good man, says God. Oh no, he isn't, says Satan. You know, let's have a proof of this. And then there is the separate struggle between Job and Leviathan, the pride of man. And whereas Job's persevering faith, his perseverance, which is mentioned in the book of James, enables God or proves that God was the winner of the wager, that God's insight was correct about Job and Satan's insight was wrong, realize that in the other essence, Job was losing the struggle against Leviathan.

115. 44:06

     He was losing the struggle against pride when God came along to rescue him with those speeches. So did Job win or lose? Yes and no, depending on, you have to realize there's two separate battles going on in the book of Job. And finally, of course, Job's suffering also affected the salvation of the three friends.

116. 44:26

     If the kingdom had come in Job chapter 1, silly thing to say in some ways, I understand, Job would have been included, the three friends would not. But the kingdom will actually come in Job chapter 42 in a way, at the end of that book, in which case Job is saved and so have his three friends.

117. 44:43

     And we learn, therefore, if the suffering of a righteous man can bring salvation to the three unrighteous men within the book of Job, if we can find a man whose righteousness is actually flawless, then if Job can save his three friends, cannot the suffering of that righteous man bring about even the whole world's redemption?

118. 45:04

     be okay, be okay, be okay, be okay, Thank you.