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My God and My Neighbor is a “Bible talk show” that looks at religious issues, Christian living and world events in light of the Word of God to give hope. This podcast is a ministry of Tennessee Bible College. TBC offers a bachelor's in Bible studies, a master of theology, and a doctorate of theology in apologetics and Christian evidences. TBC also provides Christian books, audio recordings on the Bible, and free Bible courses in English and Spanish. Tune in to My God and My Neighbor to experience the educational content that TBC has been delivering for nearly five decades!
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Kerry Duke: [00:00:00] Hi, I’m Kerry Duke, host of My God and My Neighbor podcast from Tennessee Bible College, where we see the Bible as not just another book, but the Book. Join us in a study of the inspired Word to strengthen your faith and to share what you've learned with others.
Job and his three friends were having a long and a serious disagreement. Job had lost his livestock. He'd lost most of his workers. He lost his 10 children in one day, and on top of all those troubles, he lost his health. His three friends came to visit him, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. The Bible says that they came to mourn with him and to comfort him, but they ended up getting into an argument. It was a bad argument, and the Bible shows us that what they were arguing about was why God was doing this to him.
You see, they assumed that God was behind all of these troubles. They didn't have Job chapter one and Job chapter two to read. So they just made the [00:01:00] assumption that God was doing this. So his three friends said God is punishing you because you're a sinner. That's why God took away your livestock, your workers, your children, and your health.
On the other hand, Job said I'm not a hypocrite. I'm not the evil man that you say I am. He makes statements in this section of the Book of Job that indicate that he knows he is not perfect. He admits that, but he says I don't deserve this kind of suffering. And so he begins to wonder why God is doing this, and the more he thinks about it, the more frustrated he is.
So there's frustration between these two sides of the argument. Job's three friends say one thing, Job says another, and God is not answering at this point. So we've been through what we call two rounds of this argument. Now today we come to round number three. In Job chapter 22 we begin the final section of the argument between Job and his three friends, and it's very interesting.
We're talking about the [00:02:00] problem of evil in this series. The problem of evil is: if God is all powerful, if God is all loving, then why do we have evil and suffering in the world? The Book of Job is a very enlightening book about this, and so let's get into it again. Today in Job chapter 22, we're back to the one who began accusing Job to start with.
That man was Eliphaz. In his first speech in Job chapter four verses seven and eight, Eliphaz is the first one who says Job, you're getting what you deserve. You're reaping what you have sown. This kind of thing does not happen to good people. But Job responds to Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar, and he says I'm not that kind of man. It is true that bad things do happen to bad people, that you reap what you sow, but that does not apply to me. I am not a hypocrite. And so there's this long argument from Job chapter four all the way through Job chapter 14. In the [00:03:00] second speech beginning in chapter 15, Eliphaz begins again. He is aggravated with Job.
He rebukes him. He says you have chosen the tongue of the crafty, and he reminds Job that they're older than he is and that he needs to listen to them. Now after that second round, after he's heard Job, in Job chapter 21, Eliphaz is really mad at Job. He makes some strong charges against Job.
You see, they're losing patience with him. At the same time he's put out with them. He's tired of the pain. He's angry with God as well as being angry with his three friends. So that brings us to the third round in Job chapter 22. This will be the final round of the argumentation between Job and his three friends.
It begins in Job chapter 22 again with Eliphaz, and right away he accuses Job. And this time it is serious. He's not just insinuating here, he's not just [00:04:00] making a general statement that you reap what you sow. He goes after Job here and he uses the word “you.” Notice it in Job chapter 22, verse five. His friend Eliphaz said, “Is not your wickedness great, and your iniquity without end.” There's no limit, there's no way to describe all the evil that you have done. Specifically, he says, notice in verse six: he begins to make some explicit charges against Job. It's been general up to this point for the most part, but now he says I'm going to tell you specifically what you have done wrong Job.
You have taken pledges from your brother for no reason. You have stripped the naked of their clothing. You have not given the weary water to drink. You have withheld bread from the hungry. He begins to say in verse nine: you have sent widows away empty and the strength of the fatherless was crushed.
So you've taken clothes away from people who had very little clothes. You have [00:05:00] refused to feed the poor. You have refused to help widows and orphans. Eliphaz is saying Job, you're selfish, you're greedy. You take advantage of the weak, and you have no mercy on people who are less fortunate. Now we know that this is not true.
Remember that God himself said in Job chapter one, verse eight he is a perfect, that is a complete and upright man, one that fears God and turns away from evil. This is not the kind of man that Job was. So it's interesting here that this argument begins with just a general accusation against job. And when Job will not receive that, when Job will not agree with that accusation and apologize for something that he has not done, then they begin making things up.
But Eliphaz goes back to the same old theme, that is, you're reaping what you have sown, and this is why you're in the shape that you're in, in verse 10. “Therefore snares are all around you and sudden fear troubles you.” This is why Job.
So Eliphaz said here's what you need to do. [00:06:00] You need to make this right with God. You need to admit that you're sinner in verse 21. “Now, acquaint yourself with him and be at peace, thereby good will come to you. Receive, please, instruction from his mouth,” that is from God, “and lay up His words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up.” In other words, you need to repent, and if you repent Job, then God will restore you.
He will restore your health. He will restore you back to a right relationship with Him, and you will prosper in your ways. Then in Job chapter 23, Job responds. He talks about something that he really wanted. In Job chapter 23 verse one, Job answered and said, “Even today my complaint is bitter. My hand is listless because of my groaning. Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come to his seat.” Who is he talking about here when he says, “Oh, that I knew where I might find him?” If you're looking at a New King James [00:07:00] Version, you'll find that the word “Him” begins with a capital letter. That's because the translators believed, and rightly so, that this refers to God.
Job said I wish I knew where I could find him. Now if you just stop reading there, it might appear that Job is saying I wish I knew where He was at so He could help me, so that I could beg Him for mercy, so that I could just talk to Him face to face. But Job is saying something a little bit more intense here because he said if I could find Him, if I could come to where His seat is, he said, this is what I would do.
Listen to this in Job chapter 23 verse four. This shows how exasperated Job is. In Job chapter 23, verse four, he said, “I would present my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know the words which He would answer me and understand what He would say to me.”
Remember that Job has been praying to God this whole time. He's been asking God why all this is happening. He's been asking God for mercy and God will not [00:08:00] answer him. So now he's getting exasperated. It's been many days since all this began, and now he's very frustrated. He's very bold in this section, and he says I wish I knew where he was at. I wish I knew where I could find him, because if I could, I would order my cause. I would make my case. I have been treated wrong and I can prove it. He's acting like an expert lawyer here who has all the evidence that he needs. He said I would have all kinds of arguments, all kinds of proof, all kinds of reasons to show that I'm innocent of the charge that these men have made. I'm ready for anything that God would say or ask of me, any question that he wants to ask me, any aspect of this problem. I've thought it all through. I'm ready to argue with God—not just against his three friends, but he says I'm ready to argue with God because he thought that God was being unfair and he's ready to prove it to God Almighty.
Job is in so much pain, he is so angry, [00:09:00] that he is beginning to lose perspective. Sometimes we feel like this. Sometimes we feel like we are the only one. We feel like our problem or our problems are worse than anyone else's. And like Job, we forget that God's universe is much bigger than us. And like Job and like children, sometimes we get mad and we think that we're right. And we could be.
But that's about all that we care about. That's all that we're thinking about because we pull into ourselves and we isolate ourselves, and our world becomes so little that we think that we know more than we do, and we even think that God is in the wrong and we are in the right.
So Job was so confident that he was right that he said I wish I knew where God was because I am ready to debate him. You know, we have an old saying: Be careful what you ask for, because you might just get it. Sometimes we say, be careful what you pray for because God might just give it to you. We are going to see later that Job actually gets his wish, but right [00:10:00] now he says He won't answer me.
I can't talk to him. And he says, I know that I'm right, but God will not answer me. I cannot talk to him. I know that I'm not a bad person. But he says in verse 10, time will tell. Time will prove me right. He is so certain, he is so fixed on defending himself, that he begins to see everything in light of his problems and his innocence and his mind.
In verse 10, he says, “But He knows the way that I take. When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.” When I'm put to the test, when God judges me, I'm going to be vindicated. That's all that he had his mind on. He didn't even think about the fact that he was beginning to cross the line where he was saying things to and about God that he had no right to say.
Remember, Job is in an intense argument with his three friends. The emotions are running high, and the longer they argue, the more heated the discussion becomes. And when that happens, you know that it's hard to think clearly. So [00:11:00] sometimes in this book you'll read a passage where Job is talking to his three friends. Sometimes he's talking to God; sometimes he's talking about God. Sometimes he seems to praise God and other times he seems to criticize God, and that is true. Job is expressing some mixed feelings in this book because he's being tested, he's struggling, he's in intense pain inside and outside, and so he has these conflicting feelings in his mind.
It's like a rollercoaster. And we all have this struggle at times in life, especially when we're going through a crisis in life. Remember that Jesus said in Matthew 26, verse 41, “The spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak.” You may also think as you read this book that it just seems like that we're going over the same points. It just seems like that they keep repeating the same thing, and to an extent that's true. They do keep talking about the same thing. That's the way that an argument usually goes. The good side to that is that [00:12:00] you really begin to learn. You really begin to examine what this is all about. The downside is that sometimes you get so hung up on a particular point you get in a rut and you can't see clearly.
That's why you need somebody from the outside or something to shock you into thinking in a different kind of light. And I mentioned this because in Job Chapter 24, Job seems to pick up where they've left off in this argument because they keep arguing that a man reaps what he sows. They keep saying Job, you're a sinner, and all this has happened to you because you've been a bad man.
So they're saying that a man brings all this suffering on himself and Job in Job Chapter 24 seems to pick up with that argument and then say that doesn't apply to me. He says in Job chapter 24, for instance, in verse 13, “There are those who rebel against the light. They do not know its ways nor abide in its paths. The murderer rises with the light. He kills the poor and needy, and in the [00:13:00] night he is like a thief. The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight saying, ‘No eye will see me,’ and he disguises his face.”
He continues to talk about evil people. He talks about people who have power and abuse it, and yet he says, here's what happens to those evil people. In Job chapter 24, verse 24: “They are exalted for a little while, then they are gone. They are brought low.” Job is saying that's what happens to evil people. And he seems to be implying here that if I'm the wicked man that you say I am, then God should have already taken my life. God should have already completely destroyed me and not just made me suffer like this.
And he says in verse 25 to his friends, “Now, if it is not so, who will prove me a liar and make my speech worth nothing?” Which one of you can disprove what I've just said? Which one of you can refute this? He's challenging them again to prove that he is wrong and that they are right.
And in Job chapter 25, Bildad [00:14:00] steps up to the plate one last time. He's going to try to convince Job that he is wrong. He's going to try to argue him down. In Job Chapter 25 Bildad basically says to Job that man, that is, mankind in general, is filthy. He is a worm. And who is any man to question God? And by implication he's saying, Job, who are you to question God?
Now this is what he says in Chapter 25 verse two. “Dominion and fear belong to Him. He makes peace in his high places. Is there any number to his armies? Upon whom does his light not shine? How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman? If even the moon does not shine and the stars are not pure in his sight? How much less man who is a maggot, and a son of man who is a worm?”
Now in verse four, when he says “How can he be pure, who is born of a woman?” he is not teaching inherited depravity. He is not teaching the [00:15:00] idea of original sin. This has nothing to do with that, and the Bible does not teach that. But here what he's saying simply is this, that mankind has no right to challenge God.
This is Bildad talking. This is not an inspired man to begin with. This is Bildad who is saying these things, and his point is not about how you become a sinner, it's just the fact that you are a sinner, that all people are sinners, and because of that, we have no right to argue with or to challenge God.
He doesn't say that a man is impure because he is born of a woman. He's not talking about how you become a sinner here. He's just assuming that and he's building on that point. This is no different from Job in Job chapter 14 verse one talking about man who is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble.
It's simply an expression that they're using here in this poetic section of the Bible. So Bildad just doesn't have much to say here, and he ends up saying, Job you’re a man. You're just a worm. You're [00:16:00] unclean. So how can you argue with God?
Then beginning in Job chapter 26, we find Job's final defense against what they're saying about him. And this goes for six chapters: Job chapter 26 through Job chapter 31. And the first thing that he does in Job chapter 26 is to respond to what Bildad said and basically he's saying this: Bildad, who made you an expert? What experience do you have? What kind of qualifications do you have to counsel me?
Here's how he said it in Job chapter 26, verse two: “How have you helped him who is without power? How have you saved the arm that has no strength? How have you counseled one who has no wisdom, and how have you declared sound advice to many? To whom have you uttered words and whose spirit came from you?”
Then he begins to talk about God's power over the creation. Now, it's very interesting here in this book, as we have said, that every one of these speakers talks about the creation, but they all apply it [00:17:00] in a different way. Job's three friends try to use the creation and how that God has power over it to say that Job is wrong. Job talks about the creation to defend himself. Elihu is going to say many things about the creation, and then at the end, God is going to step in. He's going to explain that He's the only one that really understands it because He's the only one who created it and really has power over it. Now, in Job chapter 26 verses five through 14, you find that Job appeals to nature then and he talks about the power that God has and the wisdom that God uses to sustain this universe.
In Job chapter 26, verse seven, you have this very interesting statement said—that He “stretches out the north over empty space.” It's not suspended by anything, and He hangs the earth on nothing. It doesn't rest on anything else. Now, that might not seem very important or very impressive to us today, but if you'd lived thousands of years ago [00:18:00] and you heard all the theories that people had about what the earth is resting on or how it's suspended, then you'd be even more impressed with the fact that this book is inspired by God. It was given by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
It's also interesting what he says in Job 26 verse 14 about God's creation. Indeed, these are the mere edges of his ways. In other words, this is just a small sampling of the power of God in creation. He says “And how small a whisper we hear of Him, but the thunder of His power, who can understand?”
Now when you come to chapter 27, you find that Job talks again about the fate of evil men. And it's interesting here that Job says that he's not going to back down. He says I'm not going to give into what you're saying because what you said about me is not true.
In Job chapter 27, verse two, he said, “As God lives, who has taken away my justice” [that's the way that he felt now] “and the [00:19:00] Almighty who has made my soul bitter—as long as my breath is in me—"and the breath of God is in my nostrils, my lips will not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. Far be it from me that I should say, ‘You are right.’ Till I die, I will not put away my integrity from me.”
So Job is saying to these men, I'm not going to back down. You have misrepresented me. You're falsely accusing me, and I'm not going to admit that you're right when I know that you're not. So he says in verse 11, I'm going to try to teach you again. I'm going to try to make the same point to you that I have been making.
And he goes back to the argument that they have made. They have said that a man reaps what he sows and Job is saying here again in this chapter, I know that. I can explain that too. Let me give you some more details about that. So beginning in verse 11, he says, “I will teach you about the hand of God.”
He talks about the fact [00:20:00] that a man does reap what he sows. He doesn't use those words, but that's the idea. Beginning in verse 13, he says this is the portion of a wicked man with God. Here's what is going to happen to a wicked man, and he talks about that throughout the rest of this chapter. So why does he bring this up? He's saying to them: I understand what you're saying, the general truth. The general principle is true that sometimes we bring upon ourselves this kind of suffering, but that does not apply in my situation. That does not apply to me. I am not a wicked man.
In chapter 28, he continues to defend himself. He says I am not a wicked man, and he talks about the creation again. This time he talks about gold and silver and copper and other precious metals. And his point about this is that men will search far and wide. Men will give all kinds of effort to dig these things out of the earth. They will look for, they will hunt and they will dig for gold and silver and copper and so forth. [00:21:00] What is his point here? He's saying that men will do this to find these precious elements of the earth, but what about wisdom?
Why aren't people looking for wisdom the way that they look for gold and silver? He says in verse 12, “But where can wisdom be found?” He says, again in verse 20, but where does wisdom come from? Where do you find it? And he answers in verse 28: “And to man he said, ‘Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.’”
And it may be here that he is aiming that at his three friends. He's telling them, you need to put this effort that you're giving into this argument into looking for wisdom. You need to look to God. You claim to be wise. Remember what he said back in chapter 12 verse two. “No doubt, but you are the people and wisdom shall die with you.”
Here in chapter 28 he may very well be saying to these friends, you need to try harder to get wisdom. You need to dig deeper because you don't have the wisdom that you [00:22:00] think you have. So that's how chapter 28 ends.
Now, when we get to chapter 29, this is a very personal chapter with Job and what he's saying in chapter 29 is: I wish that I could have my old life back. Beginning in verse two, Job said, “Oh, that I were as in months past. As in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone upon my head, and when by His light I walked through darkness, just as in the days of my prime, when the friendly counsel of God was over my tent.”
He talks about the respect that people had for him and all the good things that he did for people. In verse seven: “When I went out to the gate by the city, when I took my seat in the open square, the young men saw me and hid. The aged arose and stood; the princes refrained from talking and put their hand upon their mouth. The voice of nobles was hushed and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth. When the ear heard, then it blessed me and when the eye saw, then it approved me [00:23:00] because I delivered the poor who cried out, the fatherless and the one who had no helper. The blessing of a perishing man came upon me and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.”
Do you remember what Eliphaz said about Job? Eliphaz said, Job, you have not helped widows and orphans. Here Job is saying, Yes I have. That was my former life before this tragedy happened to me. This was what I was doing with my life. In verse 14, “I put on righteousness and it clothed me. I. My justice was like a robe in a turban. I was eyes to the blind. I was feet to the lame. I was a father to the poor, and I searched out the case that I did not know. I broke the fangs of the wicked and plucked the victim from his teeth. Then I said, I shall die in my rest and multiply my days as the sand. My root is spread out to the waters, and the dew lies all night on my branch. My glory is fresh within me and my bow is renewed in my hand.”
Notice that what he's saying here is very [00:24:00] similar to what a lot of people, and many times what a lot of us, think. And that is: I've worked hard, I've lived a good life, and now I just deserve a lot of rest. I deserve to take it easy for the rest of my life. That's what Job says in verse 18. “Then I said, I shall die in my nest. I will multiply my days as the sand.” In verse 21, he continues. He said back in those days before all this happened, men listened to me and waited, and they kept silence for my counsel after my words. They didn't speak again and “my speech settled on them as due. They waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth wide as for the spring rain.”
But then beginning in chapter 30, Job said, everything has changed now because my physical condition has changed, because my circumstances have changed, because now instead of being a wealthy man, I've lost all this. And instead of having the respective of the people, people look down upon me.
[00:25:00] Here's what's happening now. Chapter 30 verse one. “But now they mock me, men younger than I, whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock.” He says in verse nine, “And now I am their taunting song. Yes, I am their byword.” In other words, these people would not have dared to say some of these things to or about Job before this calamity hit, but now that Job is down, they have the upper hand [they think]. You don't really know people until they're tested. You don't really know people until the circumstances change. So it's not so much that these people have changed; it's that their true colors are coming out.
Before all this happened to Job, they acted humble. They were respectful—at least on the outside. They acted nice, but now they don't need him, and because they don't need him, they have no use for him. So after Job talks about this rejection by people, he goes back again to how bad he was suffering physically. He talks about the great pain that he was [00:26:00] enduring. Beginning in verse 16, he says, “And now my soul is poured out because of my plight. The days of affliction take hold of me. My bones are pierced in me at night and my gnawing pains take no rest. By great force my garment is disfigured. It binds me about as the color of my coat. He has cast me into the mire and I have become like dust and ashes.”
Notice in verse 19 that he says, again “He has cast me into the mire.” He's talking about God. He still believes that God has done all this to him. Now, when you get to verse 20 and 21, you come to a key passage in this book. If there's any passage that deserves marking, maybe underlining or putting some kind of notation around it or highlighting it, it is Job 30, verse 20 and 21.
Job said to God, “I cry out to you, but you do not answer me. I stand [00:27:00] up and you regard me, but you have become cruel to me. With the strength of your hand you oppose me.” He's saying that God is being cruel to him. Now, if he has not crossed the line before in what he said about God, then he's definitely crossing that line here.
What happened to him can and probably has happened to all of us when we feel that we have been wronged in some way by someone else or by life itself. We want to vindicate ourselves. We want to justify ourselves, and we become so fixated on justifying our position that we get things completely out of proportion with God.
We forget about His part in it, and we can reach the point where we not only say “I'm right and the whole world is wrong,” but we even say, “I'm right and God is wrong.” Do you think that can't happen to you? Do we think that can't happen to us? That happened to Job and if it happened to Job as good a man as he was, [00:28:00] then it can happen to any of us, and it starts with what we call the problem of evil when something tragic has happened in life and it hurts so bad, and we become so angry, we begin to draw a circle around ourselves and put the whole world and everybody else outside of it and everything outside of it, and we even become angry at God, and that's when we're beginning to go down the wrong path.
In Job chapter 31, we find job's final defense. Job insists that he's innocent, that he's a good man, and in a sense in this chapter, he swears with an oath: If I've done wrong, he's saying, then let all these bad things happen to me. In the first place, he says, I've been pure as far as marriage is concerned. I've been a good man. He said, “I made a covenant with my eyes. Why then should I look upon a young woman?” What's he talking about? He's talking about the fact that he was married and he kept his eyes from other [00:29:00] women. You remember that Jesus said in Matthew chapter five, verse 28, “Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart?” Job is saying I've not done that.
He says in verses five through eight, I've not deceived people. Verses nine through 12: he says I've not been with other women. He says in verses 13 through 15 I've treated my servants fairly. And then beginning in verse 16 and going all the way through the end of this chapter, he keeps talking about the fact that if I have done wrong, then let all of these curses, let all of these calamities come upon me.
So it's almost like Job is saying: If what you three are saying is true, then let it come. If I am a wicked man, if I am a bad person, then let all these curses come upon me. But what he's implying, of course, is I have not been. You're wrong, and I'm right. And the Bible says in Job chapter 31, verse 40, “The words of job are ended.”
Now that's about the argument. [00:30:00] Job will have a few more things to say in this book after God puts him in his place. But first, we're going to hear from a young man who has sat patiently while he's listened to Job and his three friends argue, and that will begin in Job chapter 32.
Thank you for listening to My God and My Neighbor. Stay connected with our podcast on our website and on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever fine podcasts are distributed. Tennessee Bible College, providing Christian education since 1975 in Cookeville, Tennessee, offers undergraduate and graduate programs. Study at your level. Aim higher and get in touch with us today.