Warren Phillips - Hast Thou Considered My Servant Job - Class 1 - The Background and Setting of the Book of Job

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

1. 0:00

   This is the 1981 Texas Christadelphian Bible School. This is the first in a series of classes by Brother Warren Phillips titled Hostile Considered My Servant Joe, Brother 1 Morning, Everyone find that the Book of Job is a book that I know that we’re all reasonably well acquainted with to a degree. I’m sure that we also look at the Book of Job as a rather difficult book to be understood. Perhaps we’re quite familiar with the first two chapters, the last chapter, and perhaps a few verses snuggled out in the middle of the book that we make use of as proof verses when we want to discuss with those who do not see eye to eye with us on doctrinal subjects.

2. 0:55

   But when it comes to examining the Book of Job as a whole, to understand it as a whole, it is a rather difficult book for us to grasp. We also find that perhaps because of the way in which it’s written, it may even seem to be somewhat on the boring side. And therefore we might not take quite the amount of time that we ought to to study it and try to comprehend it. And to think that we’re taking it up into the Bible school. Perhaps we might think that, well, maybe this period will be a washout for the week.

3. 1:22

   I hope it won’t be. We’re going to try to make the Book of Job interesting. Even though the Book of Job may be somewhat difficult to understand, we hope will make it both interesting and understandable. So that as we go away from this Bible school this week, we will have felt that this hour that we’ve spent with the Book of Job each day has been very, very profitable.

4. 1:44

   We do find that we’re in very good company. When we consider Job, we find that Job was put together with some very remarkable in individuals in the scriptures. Job is spoken of in number of places in the scriptures. For instance, in the book of James, chapter 5, verse 11, we read you have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord. What a commendation this is for Job. Job is held up very highly not only within the book of Job but elsewhere in the scriptures.

5. 2:15

   When we turn to the book of Ezekiel, the 14th chapter, we come across two very interesting verses that say essentially the same thing about Job. Job is put in company with two other very righteous individuals that are held for us in the word of God. We find that in the 14th 1st we read these words though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness. And the 20th verse of that same chapter we read almost essentially the same thing, though Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter.

6. 2:55

   They shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness. And here we find that Job is upheld as a very righteous individual and placed alongside of Noah and Daniel. And it’s interesting for us to note that in the case of Noah and Daniel, these individuals are held forth as righteous throughout the entire account of their life, both before the action, during the action, and after the action has been completed. And I know that there are a variety of opinions in regard to not only the Book of Job and its meaning, but also to the righteousness of Job, so that some would even challenge the thought of whether or not Job really was righteous. Some would go so far as to say that the complimentary statements, if we find in the book of Job about Job is merely only the opinion that he has of himself and not really the type of character that he actually had. And when he suffers, he’s suffering for something that he really deserves.

7. 3:58

   I’d like you to reserve your judgement until the end of the classes this week. We’re not going to take up everything obviously in the first period. I’d like to follow the book of Job this week in the way in which it’s written. I feel that the Almighty had a purpose in arranging the book in the way in which he did.

8. 4:14

   Instead of just picking out themes and working our way through Job, taking verses, perhaps out of context, I’d like to work through Job the way the Lord has outlined it, so that we might actually see the progression of thought as we work through the Book of Job and bring out various lessons that will be helpful to us in understanding the purpose of the Book of Job. Now there’s a very distinct purpose in the writing of the Book of Job as there is in many other books of the Scriptures, probably all of them.

9. 4:43

   We find that many books of the scriptures have distinct themes, and those themes are returned to again and again and again. For instance, the Book of Daniel. We find the theme of the Book of Daniel is that they might know that the Most High rule within the kingdoms of men and set up whomsoever he will to rule over them.

10. 5:02

    It seems to be a theme. It’s repeated again and again and again. And when we look at the book of Daniel in an overall purpose, we find that really does seem to be the theme of Daniel. When we come to the Book of Ezekiel, we find there’s a distinct theme there. 70 times in the Book of Ezekiel, a statement is made that they shall know that I am Yahweh. Of course the King James says they shall know that I am the Lord.

11. 5:25

    But that’s the purpose of the Book of Ezekiel. That the Jews might recognize that Yahweh is the only true and living God. That the people that were living at the time of the action of Ezekiel might recognize that Yahweh, the God of Israel, was the only true and living God. And also in the future with the remarkable prophecies that are made that are being fulfilled in our day and yet on into the future. The purpose is that the world as a whole, even now, might eventually recognize that Yahweh is the only true and living God. When we come to the Book of Job, we find that there is a distinct purpose in the book of Job, and we have it for you in the post that’s right in front of me.

12. 6:04

    The purpose of the book of Job is the problem of evil in relation to the righteousness of God. Now, if we were to say that the purpose of the book of Job is to explain the problem of pain and suffering, we would be right to a degree, but it’d be an oversimplification. It’s a little bit more than that.

13. 6:22

    The question is, is it right or right? Chess for a good and loving and kind and beneficent God to permit more than that to cause a righteous man such as Job to suffer. And it’s because of this problem that many people have been confronted with, that they’ll turn around and look at Job and say, well, when it speaks about his righteousness, that’s only his opinion of himself, and he really wasn’t righteous after all, and that’s why God caused him to suffer. I’m not going to take up that idea, although I’d like to discuss that in just a couple of moments to a very limited degree.

14. 7:03

    Once again asking that you wait until the class has been completed this week to form your final opinions. Although I’m sure you’ve all come with opinions to begin with, the actual purpose of the Book of Job is righteousness, and we’re going to find that that is going to be really the case. As we work our way through, we find that the Book of Job is divided into 5 distinct sections. We also have a poster that outlines that for us. I also have a few sets of notes on the Book of Job. Before I left Meriden, I thought I’d have notes enough for everybody, but I find that by giving this talk in a number of places, they’ve been greatly depleted and I ended up with only a handful.

15. 7:46

    I’ll drag them out later in the week and we’ll have to see what we can do for those that would like to have them. We’ll do the best we can with the number that we have with us. You notice the Book of Job is divided into 5 distinct divisions. First of all we have the prologue, then the debate between Job and his three friends, which takes up 30 chapters almost.

16. 8:09

    We have the speeches of Eli, who the young man, chapters 32 through 37. We have the voice of the Almighty chapter 38 through 42 up to the 6th, 1st, and finally the epilogue at the end, the last 11 verses. Now there’s something that I think we should mention in regard to the book of Job. It is a somewhat difficult book to understand for two particular reasons.

17. 8:32

    First of all, we find that the Book of Job is one of the five books of wisdom in the scriptures. It’s not a book that we can sit down and read through like we might read, say, the Book of Esther or Some of those are the very fascinating books where we can pick up a wealth of meaning at one cursory reading. The Book of Job is one of the books of wisdom. Therefore, we have to sit down and think a little bit about it if we’re going to understand it.

18. 8:56

    It’s a book that we can go back to again and again throughout our lives and be able to gain something more each and every time that we go back to it. It’s not a book that is a very simple book, even though this week we’re going to do the best we can to digest it for you and put it into simple language, hoping that perhaps some thoughts and ideas will be forthcoming from you will help me in the future to make it a more interesting and more profitable, and I hope a much more correct the outline of the Book of Job.

19. 9:27

    We also find there’s another problem with the Book of Job. I don’t really mean a problem, but a problem for our understanding of the Book of Job. It’s written mostly in poetry, as some other books of the scriptures are written in poetry. And here we have a twofold problem. First of all, understanding poetry itself, with its flowery picture language with its poetic license, is not always the easiest thing to do. We have enough difficulty considering poetry that’s written in the English language that we’re all very familiar with.

20. 9:58

    But when we come to a book such as Joel, which was written in poetry in the Hebrew language and then translated from that language into the English, we find that there’s an added difficulty. First of all, have the translators captured the picture that was really intended in the original writing in Hebrew? It’s very difficult and we come against problems. And of course we lose the rhyme and the rhythm by translating poetry from one language to another. Not the whole of the book of Job is written in poetry form. We do find that the first two chapters, the epilogue, is written as prose.

21. 10:38

    We’ve read one of those chapters this morning, and we find that it’s quite readily understood, at least to a degree, and I hope we get reasonably far through that this morning. Then we come to one other section in the book of Job, which is written as prose, and that’s the epilogue, the last 11 verses. That’s not too difficult to understand, although we’ll certainly have a number of things to say about that. And I hope that we’ll be able to bring out some very, very beautiful and to me, inspiring thoughts from that epilogue. But the center section with the exception of just a. Very few verses.

22. 11:13

    Are all written in poetry, and that is difficult to understand, difficult, especially when it’s translated from one language to another. So what we’re going to do is take up the various sections as they come up in the book of Job to try to get the construction that the Almighty intended us to have and to work through it together to get the thoughts and the lessons that are there for us.

23. 11:36

    I think they’ll be very profitable and I’m going to try to do my best to make it interesting as we go. I do think we’d like to have just two or three more minutes of introduction for the book of job. What about the setting, the time, the date, the location, first of all, the time in which the action actually took place?

24. 11:56

    I think this would be very helpful for us. To be able to. Drop it into a historical time period so that we might better understand what took place. Probably it took place sometime between the end of the life of Joseph and the beginning of the life of Moses. We find that there are a number of individuals mentioned in Job.

25. 12:19

    We could tediously go through references that seem to make reference to this and other parts of the scriptures. First of all, we find that Job was in the land of Oz. Oz is the first born of Nahor, one of another nephew of Abraham, one of Abraham’s brother. We. Also have Oz. As the son of Abram, who was from Shem back in the 10th chapter of Genesis, I have all of these references if you’d like. I’m not going to spend a long lot of time on this. It seems as though he also may have been a possibility of being a descendant of Seer Oz has mentioned a number of times in the scriptures.

26. 12:59

    The question is, is it all referring to one particular individual, or are there a number of individuals named us? We have Elihu, who was a buzzite or a buzzite, depending how you wish to pronounce it. Buzz was one of Abraham’s other nephews, and we seem to have this action taking place sometime after Abraham Aliphas came from Timon, a name which is connected with Esau or Edom, which of course we also know as one of the descendants of Abraham.

27. 13:30

    And here we have quite a list of references that seemed to indicate that this individual did exist at that time and was indeed a descendant that we could play. Sometime after the life of Abraham, we move down to Bill, Bill, Dad, one of the other characters within the book of Job. We find that he was a Shoehite and sure, from whom he probably descended, was the youngest son of Abraham by Ketura, who you remember, Abraham married after Sarah had died. We find that there are a number of references in regard to that. Also so far was a Namathite and there’s not too much that’s conclusive about sofar, although it’s possible that he may have been related to someone by the name of either Zepho or Zephy, which was a grandson of Esau.

28. 14:22

    This is not conclusive, but it is interesting that in the Sartorjan translation both of these names are translated sofar they may have a connection, they may not, we can’t be actually sure. However, it does seem that this action took place sometime after the time of Abraham and when we come to Eliphaz he claims to be more aged than Job.

29. 14:48

    We have a quotation which reads. Thus amongst us is 1, both Gray headed and very aged, one older in Dazed and thy father. And when we look at the Hebrew, we find that the term Gray headed and aged are in the singular, which would seem to give an indication that what he’s actually doing is referring to himself, although in a rather polite and proper way.

30. 15:13

    So he suggested that he may have been contemporary or slightly older than Job’s father, or perhaps about the age of Job’s grandfather. Now, with all of these things in consideration, we could safely say that Job lived sometime after the death of Joseph. Or very close, he may have been born just before the death of Joseph.

31. 15:36

    There’s a possibility, and before the time that Moses was born, it’s possible that he might have even spent that entire time. The total age of Job is not absolutely certain. I’ll make a suggestion in regard to that later on. Also, the date of the book when it was written should be considered. We find that it was after the memorial name Yahweh had been given, and therefore most likely it was given after the Exodus from Egypt. There’s a possibility there.

32. 16:09

    It certainly seems that though it was written sometime after the book of Genesis and probably before the book of Exodus was written, we also have the location of the action that took place. And by examining the various lands that are considered, we would have to put it somewhere on the east of Jordan, which would suggest down in the area of Edom. It seemed to be in an area where both the Chaldeans and the Arabians could have be, could have come upon the wealth of Job and fallen upon it.

33. 16:40

    By the readings that we found in this morning’s readings, it would therefore have to be somewhere on the east of the Jordan River, perhaps in the ancient area of Edom. What we would know now is the country of Jordan. We also find that the location of his three three friends seem to indicate a connection with that particular part of the world, all combined to suggest that it may have been somewhere on the fringes of the Arabian Desert.

34. 17:08

    There’s one other thing we should think of before we jump into that first chapter of Job, and that’s the authorship of the Book of Job. The suggestion has been made that it was probably Moses. Although when we go to the critics we find that they wouldn’t quite agree with this idea. And perhaps it’s because some of their thinking seems to be very much involved with the idea of evolution, that man himself as involved, has evolved and so hasn’t his knowledge and his literate literary capability.

35. 17:40

    And they look at the book of Job and they say, now this is a very complicated book. And therefore it must have been written very late and not very early, because man would not have had the ability to write the book of Job at a very early date, such as many would ascribe the writing of Job that is back around the time of Moses. And so they would suggest that the book of Job was written considerably later in history, a number of 100 years. But when we stopped to think that the word of God has been inspired by God, would it be a difficult thing for the Almighty to inspire the writing of a very complicated book at any time in history?

36. 18:19

    And of course it would not. And there are many suggestions in the book of Job in relation to the other books of the Scriptures that would bring us to the thought that it probably was written after the book of Genesis was written but before the Book of Exodus was written. And so we have a number of reasons for suggesting that Job action took place after the life of Joseph, but before the life of Moses, that the setting was indeed in that corner of the world, close to the Arabian desert, and the chances are pretty good that Moses was the author. This is the traditional view, although it’s not absolutely conclusive.

37. 18:57

    But there is a rather interesting thing in regard to the writing of Job. We’ve already mentioned that most of the book of Job was written in portrait, and we cannot compare a poetic book with books that were written in pole the prose, except for the section that was written in prose. And in those first two chapters of Job. In the last 11 verses we find that there are many phrases that are peculiar to the other writings of Moses and not made use of and many other the books of the scriptures. There are many of them.

38. 19:30

    I have a list of a few. We could certainly enhance that list by quite a bit. I will not take the time to outline them all for you, but the indication is that it may very well have been Moses who would have written the Book of Job. The possibility is there. I don’t wish to be dogmatic about it.

39. 19:49

    I would like now to jump into the Book of Job and to see what we can do with the time allotted. Wherever we end up with time this morning, we’ll merely pick up with it as time goes on through the week. On every other occasion when I’ve had to give classes on the Book of Job, I’ve been assigned different periods of time, anywhere from one class to 1/2 a dozen.

40. 20:11

    And therefore, it’s very difficult to break it up and say this day will go exactly this far. We’ll go as far as we can. We’ll try to keep one eye on the clock, try to end on time, and then pick it up tomorrow where we leave off today. And so we start with the book of Job, and I wonder if we could open to that first chapter that we’ve had read for us and take a little bit of a look at it there. We start out in the first verse by reading that there was a man in the name of Oz whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright, one that feared God and his true evil. And I think we all realize that if we could ever be spoken of by the inspired word of God in such complimentary ways, we would be very, very happy indeed.

41. 20:52

    And yet, not everyone feels that Job really was, as described here in that first verse, as one who was perfect and upright, a man that feared God and his true evil. Some would even go so far as to say that’s the opinion that Job had of himself, but it’s not really what Job was.

42. 21:11

    If this was the case, I think we’d have quite a few problems. I’d like to review a few of those. I’ve heard that many think that actually Job was somewhat of a scoundrel and the suffering that he underwent was what he really deserved after all, for the purpose of bringing him to a position of righteousness which eventually, perhaps, he may be obtained. If indeed we’re going to take this position, what we’re going to have to say is the Bible doesn’t really mean what it says.

43. 21:38

    And if this is the case, we’re going to have to look at many passages in the Bible that we use as proof verses for the doctrines that we most assuredly believe and say. Well, they don’t. Really mean what they say. They mean exactly the opposite. And this is exactly what many of those who our opponents do when it comes to very basic points of doctrine. When it says there’s one God, they’ll say, well, it really means it’s three.

44. 22:00

    And we have all kinds of problems such as that When it says the wages of sin is death, they’ll say, oh, that means the body died. But still, a person’s actually immortal because their soul lives on forever. And we have all kinds of problems such as that. If we’re going to say that the Bible doesn’t really mean what it says, we’re going to have a great deal of difficulty here.

45. 22:18

    We find that Job is upheld by the inspired word of God here in the book of Job and also in other books of the Scriptures as being a man who was indeed righteous. We already mentioned how that he was put together with Noor and Daniel, individuals who were righteous before the action, during the action, and after the action.

46. 22:39

    When we look at Job, if indeed he can be compared with them, it would not be unreasonable for us to assume that he indeed was righteous before the action, during the action, and after the action. That doesn’t mean that Job couldn’t learn anything by what took place, and later on in the week we’re going to consider a problem that Job had.

47. 22:59

    But this is not going to conflict with the mechanical righteousness that Job had, that he was indeed perfect and upright in his actions, that he was indeed a man who feared God and his true evil. And by that I don’t mean that he never made a mistake. We know that only the Lord Jesus Christ lived an absolutely perfect life, but nevertheless He made righteousness a way of life and he is upheld and commended for it by the Lord Himself.

48. 23:28

    Not only here in the first verse, but also in the discussion he has with the enemy that comes on the scene a few verses down in the book of Job. So here we have him upheld. There are a number of other reasons that could be considered. To outline them now or later is a question we do find a little bit later.

49. 23:49

    We’re going to be considering the doctrine of exact retribution, if indeed the scripture doesn’t mean what it says. We wouldn’t have any argument for exact retribution or against exact retribution, which is actually what the case is. Therefore we come to the conclusion that we would find that the Almighty was wrong when he condemned Job’s three friends at the end of the book in that very last chapter, and said Thou hast not spoken that which is right concerning me as my servant.

50. 24:16

    Job has a very interesting commendation for the things that Job had to say in his debates with his three friends. And perhaps the most important thing, a subject that we’ll get to a little bit later in the week. Not too much. And that is the the fact that the innocent can indeed suffer for the benefit of the guilty, a point which we’re going to have to hammer home a number of times this week. And even though this is slightly out of line from where it’s presented in the Book of Job, I think we have to keep in the back of our mind that the Almighty in His wisdom. I saw to it that the Book of Job was inspired to be written very, very early in history, very early in the list of the Canon of books of the Scriptures.

51. 25:03

    And I think there’s a reason for if we did not realize this basic principle that the innocent can suffer for the benefit of the guilty, when we would come to view the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ, it’d be unintelligible to us. We have to realize that an individual can indeed suffer for the benefits of others, and that was placed very early in the inspired writings of the Holy Writ, even back here in the book of Job. There are a number of reasons for us to accept the fact that Job was a mechanically righteous individual. His attitude toward his righteousness is something that we’re going to consider later in the week, and also, I hope, the attitude we may have toward our righteousness, if indeed we have any.

52. 25:53

    We also find that a very interesting thing took place. We have a list next of what happened in regard to his children, how that his sons came together to offer sacrifices, verse two, and they were born unto him, seven sons and three daughters. We also have a list of his substance. We have it outlined here and I’d like to turn up one more poster and we won’t go beyond this particular poster this morning. We have in this poster of course a comparison of the wealth of Job both before the action and then after the action was over and God had current turn the captivity of Job and we notice, I don’t know if you can all see that perhaps it’s a little bit low down.

53. 26:40

    You have the same thing written down for you in the third verse of this book. How that his substance also was 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 yokovacs, oxen, 500 Shias is in a very great household, so that this man was the greatest of all of the East. And you notice how that that’s written in one column on the right side of the page or left side of the page, Excuse me, your left is my right.

54. 27:07

    And on the other column we have what he received after the action was over, how that the Lord had given him twice as much as he had had before. You also notice a rather interesting thing, and we’re going to bring this up on Saturday now that he had seven sons and three daughters to begin with, and how he also has seven sons and three daughters to end with. We do wish to discuss that on Saturday, and I think to me at least, it’s one of the most beautiful things in the whole of the book of Job, but let’s set that aside for a while. We also have the age that Job lived after the action took place, but we’re not told how old Job was when the action took place.

55. 27:49

    I’m going to make a suggestion as to how old I think he was, and I’ll give you the reason for that on Saturday. Although I don’t mind telling you now how old I think Job was when the action took place. I think he was 70 years of age, but I’d like to leave the reasons for that when we get to the 42nd chapter and find that the Lord had turned the captivity of Job. So let’s leave that.

56. 28:12

    We do find that he had seven sons and three daughters to begin with. Some had made a suggestion that these seven sons and three daughters did not actually die, that there was merely a report that they had died and they had been hidden away somewhere because they said it wouldn’t be very nice of the Almighty to kill 10 of Job’s children, if indeed they were righteous. And others have made the suggestion of saying, well, you know, the children of Job were not such very good individuals and that’s why the Lord did permit them to be killed, because they really didn’t deserve to live. I’m going to take another position and say that I feel that these seven sons and three daughters were righteous children and that they actually did die. And there are another seven sons and three daughters that were born unto Job after the action had taken place. If you wish to do a little research, I’d recommend that you take a look at the Septuagint translation, For there we find that at the beginning of the Book of Job, this man had seven sons and three daughters.

57. 29:18

    They were already there. They were in existence. At the end of the Book of Job, after the captivity of Job is turned by the Lord, we find that they were born unto him. Seven sons and three daughters. Another seven sons, another three daughters. And we’re going to have quite a bit to say about that when we come to Saturday.

58. 29:39

    But would it be unrighteous of the Lord for those 10 if they were righteous children to be put to death? You know, death is a temporary thing for those who are righteous, isn’t it, For them to sleep in the dust of the grave, and the very next thing that they would consciously realize would be to be alive at the feet of the Lord Jesus?

59. 30:02

    Would it really be all that cruel? Did you ever stop to think of that for yourself? For those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ to fall asleep in death and rest in the grave? Is it really all that bad when you think that the next thing that we would know? Would be that we would be standing before the Lord Jesus Christ. So what happened in regard to Job’s seven sons and three daughters, we find that they made a feast starting at their the elder son’s house, working down through the seven. Now that would take a week, wouldn’t it? And on each day they would.

60. 30:34

    Assemble at one of the sons homes and the three daughters were invited as well. Some have. Suggested that it certainly wasn’t a very good assembly. It was, well, somewhat of a wild party, if we may put it in polite phrase. But others have suggested that it was indeed a very holy union, where that they were there together to feast and to give Thanksgiving to the Lord.

61. 30:59

    For the wonderful. Life that he had. Given them and the glorious promise of a future life to come, this is a position that I’d like to take myself at this point and also note that on the 1st. Day of the week, which would also be if it was a repeated thing. Whether every week they had rounds such as this going from one son to another and it would be continual feasting. Or perhaps it may have taken place only periodically through the year.

62. 31:25

    We don’t know. But on the first day of the week Job offered sacrifices. And it’s because of the way that it’s worded in the scriptures that I would like to suggest that his sons and daughters were indeed righteous individuals. We noticed that Job offered sacrifices because he said perhaps they’ve sinned against God in their heart.

63. 31:49

    If indeed their sins had been obviously external. If they had been committed in any terrible sins, it would have been obvious, and that would be the reason that Job would be offering sacrifices. But he wasn’t offering sacrifices for any particular sin that they had sinned outwardly. But he was so interested in the well-being of his offspring that he said it just might be that their hearts might not quite be right with God, and he was even interested in their internal attitude toward the Creator.

64. 32:21

    My suggestion is therefore that they really were righteous, at least outwardly, and Job was hoping that their righteousness would be inward as well as outward. The suggestion is there, and it’s left up for your consideration. And so we do find that. Then there was a meeting between the sons of God who came before the Lord. All, and I know that our friends and many of the churches around about us have got all sorts of great and wonderful ideas about this particular passage.

65. 32:51

    Perhaps the most popular is that here is a meeting of the angels of God up in heaven. And amongst that meeting of the angels of God, along comes a bad fellow that’s called Satan, who had been a rebellious Angel and had spent his time walking to and fro on the earth trying to get people to turn against God.

66. 33:09

    And here God challenges them and says, have you considered my servant Job? That there’s none like him in all the earth? One who is perfect and upright. One who fears God and his true evil, almost as though he’s gloating to this fallen Angel. And the fallen Angel said, well, you know the only reason. He’s a righteous man, as he recognizes as a good business deal.

67. 33:29

    You’ve paid him to be righteous. You’ve given him everything that he has, you’ve given him a fine wife and 10 children, and you’ve given him a lots of wealth and good health. Why shouldn’t he be righteous? You’ll pay him to be righteous, and he recognizes a good business deal, is willing to accept the pay and pay you back by being a servant of yours.

68. 33:50

    Is it possible that this meeting took place up in heaven by the angels of God? You know, there is one passage in the Scriptures where the sons of God are spoken of, and it obviously is angels. And we’ll have to admit that that passage is in the book of Job. It’s over there in the 38th chapter that we’ll get to a few days from now, and there it speaks about the creation and how at the creation. All the sons of God rejoiced.

69. 34:15

    Obviously that has to be the angels of heaven. Because human beings weren’t around beginning. Not until the 6th day when man was indeed created. Therefore the sons of God in that particular reference must be the angels. And Sir, surely the angels of heaven are the sons of God. But there are many passages throughout the Scriptures where sons of God are referred to, in fact the bulk of them, where it obviously is human beings, we read in the Scriptures. Now are we the sons of God?

70. 34:44

    And we could bring up literally, probably 20 passages which speak of us human beings as being the sons and daughters of God. It’s there again and again through the Scriptures. And unless we’re given very good reason to believe that when it speaks of the sons of God it is God’s heavenly angels, we would be in much, much better perspective to expect that it would be human beings, because the Bible has to do with God’s relationship with man. We have another problem, however, and we’re immediate. It’s immediately pointed out that these. Sons of God.

71. 35:22

    Came before the Lord. And that Lord the Lord dwelleth in a man, that God dwells in a light that no man can approach unto, that he dwells in heaven. And therefore the coming before the Lord must indeed have been up in heaven. And since we don’t have access to heaven, it must have been God’s heavenly angels. And so the argument goes, Is that the case? Do we not find in the scriptures that very often men? Were to come.

72. 35:48

    Before the Lord. In fact, there are two other places in the scriptures. It uses this exact phraseology to present themselves before the Lord, and in both cases it has to do with the men of Israel presenting themselves before the Tabernacle of the congregation. We do find that in the wilderness, when the Tabernacle of the congregation was there, all Israel on a number of a number of times presented themselves before the Lord. We also find that under the Mosaic Law, after they had settled in the land, and 1st when the House of the Lord was at Shiloh, and later after the Temple had been built by Solomon, that all of the males of Israel were to present themselves 3 * a year before the Lord. And that didn’t mean that every man in Israel went to heaven 3 * a year didn’t have anything to do with that. The presenting of themselves before the Lord was right here on the earth.

73. 36:44

    Did you ever stop to think we present ourselves before the Lord often, don’t we? Certainly every Sunday when we come together to break bread and drink wine? And I hope we present ourselves before the Lord on many other occasions as well. Not only when we get together with those of light, precious faith for various meetings throughout the week, but also whenever we draw before the Lord in prayer, we’re presenting ourselves before the Lord And the idea of saying that in order for the sons of God to present themselves before the Lord, it must have been a heavenly meeting. Something off this planet certainly doesn’t stand up to very close scrutinization.

74. 37:24

    Instead we find that it most likely has to do with an earthly meeting where that those within the Ecclesia, within the community of believers had come before the Lord and amongst them came an enemy, someone who was not quite right with God. One who was a self-made man, one who saw no real reason for being of service to God. And the Lord directs his attention to a very righteous individual, even Job, and said, hast thou considered my servant Job one that fears God and his choose evil, that there’s no one like him in all the earth.

75. 38:02

    And the suggestion is that, look, Satan or enemy, which is actually what the word means, and that’s all it means. Why don’t you take Job’s life as an example for yourself? Why don’t you try to emulate the way in which he lives? He’s living in the right way and this enemy doesn’t see any real reason for it and says, you know, it’s only a business deal that you’ve got going between yourself and Job.

76. 38:25

    You’ve given Job everything that he has. You’ve given him a wonderful life. You’ve given him a wonderful wife, 10 wonderful children. You’ve given him wealth that nobody else on the earth has. He’s the richest in the East. You’ve given him good health. Why shouldn’t he return that business deal by giving you his righteousness? So all you’re really doing, God is buying Job’s righteousness, and all He’s doing is selling it to you. In fact, this was a real enemy, wasn’t it? It was an enemy not only of Job, but also of God as well, because he was accused of seeing both of this unsavory practice, That this righteousness that Job was exhibiting was only a business deal between himself and God.

77. 39:12

    And therefore this enemy suggests that if God was to remove all of Job’s wealth, that Job would curse him to his face. And then God gives him a very remarkable power. He says go ahead, take it away from him, but don’t you touch his body. And then we find that there are four quick hammer blows that fall upon Job to test his integrity, to see if he was really serving God because he wanted to serve him for righteousness sake or just because it’s a business deal. And consequently we find that these things. Fall.

78. 39:46

    Upon him in quick hammer blows. First of all, we find that the Sabians come and take away his camel and asses, and only one servant remains to come and tell Job. And isn’t it interesting that this most likely takes place on the first day of the week, the very day that Job has offered sacrifices to God? We find this later on because when it’s his, it’s when his children are eating and drinking in the elder brother’s house. It was probably that first day of the week. And job had already.

79. 40:15

    Offered his sacrifices. And by these things taking place and being smitten as he was, it would seem in Job’s mind as if God had turned against him, that God had removed all the blessings that he had heretofore given it, and therefore his sacrifice had not been accepted by Almighty God. First the Sabians take away his oxen and asses, and the Messenger hasn’t even completed his message.

80. 40:38

    When another Messenger comes on the scene and says that his sheep were destroyed by fire and that Messenger hasn’t finished talking before, 1/3 Messenger comes on the scene and says the Chaldeans took away your camels. And then the 4th messenger with the saddest message of all comes on the scene and says there was a great wind which killed your ten children as they were dining in the elder brother’s house. He said.

81. 41:01

    And I alone am escaped to tell thee if there is any time in Job’s light where his emotions would have been brought to a very low condition, and when, if at any time, he would curse God, it would have been that we know how we feel when we’re pretty down in the dumps. Emotionally, we find that that’s when that we don’t react in nearly as righteous A manner as we would when we feel highly spiritual by being uplifted by perhaps a Bible school such as this.

82. 41:32

    You know it’s. It’s a lot easier to remain righteous at a time like this than it is when we’re out in the world and everything seems to be going wrong here. Everything had gone wrong in Job’s life. Even his sacrifice, it seems, had been rejected by God. But now we find that he had lost all that he had in the way of wealth, everything that we find in that list, including the ten children. And yet we find that Job maintained his integrity. He amazes us in the way in which he received this very unfortunate news.

83. 42:04

    He falls down before God, and he worships, and he says, the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord, and I’ve often wondered myself, and I wonder if you have, how we would react under similar circumstances. Why would we have just a little problem, just one thing happened at a time? And isn’t it interesting that very often when the problems come in life, they do come one at a time? If they mounted up upon us, it’d be pretty hard for us to stand it.

84. 42:33

    But even when they come one at a time, very often we look at it and say, why could God let this happen to me? How often do we say the Lord give it and the Lord taketh away and really say and mean it? Blessed be the name of the Lord, but we find that job did. He maintained his integrity?

85. 42:55

    He maintained his integrity. What a beautiful thing. I wish we could go on, but I do know by the time that we’ve gone about two minutes overtime, I was hoping to get through the 2nd chapter. But let’s take a look at that tomorrow morning with perhaps a one or two-minute review of this first chapter.