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The Harvester Podcast is brought to you by the Florida School of Preaching. Listen weekly to take a dive into biblical topics and thoughtful studies on things that matter to our eternal souls.
Welcome to the Harvester Podcast.
We are happy you have chosen to join us
today.
As we continue our study on the book of
Job.
Now we are calling these bumper-soweds
because they are episodes between seasons.
And we'll begin our next season pretty
soon on Minoring in the Majors.
~ Lessons select lessons from the major
prophets to follow up our last season,
which was majoring in the minors,
the minor prophets that is.
But in the book of Job, we've looked at
some various lessons in the book
of Job as we go through this. As we've
mentioned before,
and many people only know about the first
chapter first two chapters
in the last chapter, namely Job having
everything taken away
and then having everything restored.
But there's so much more that goes on
between those first chapters
and the last chapter that we want to just
take a little look at,
some particular lessons. Now, in the last
episode,
we looked at chapter twenty-eight.
which is a hymn to wisdom, just a praise
to wisdom.
And as we discussed in that chapter,
~ it seems to stand off stand by itself as
a beautiful transition between
the three rounds of dialogue between Job
and the three friends,
Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar speaking,
and Job answering each of them.
And then the Elihu speeches which come
well actually there's
Three dialogues and there's three
monologues.
You have the Job speeches, the Elihu
speeches,
and then the God speeches. God finally
speaks.
And so chapter 28 kind of balances that
out.
Now today we want to take a look at Job's
claim of innocence in chapters 29,
30, and 31. Now it would have been very
easy for Job just to,
even though he did not sin to the point
that he deserved this kind of punishment.
According to their retribution theology,
it would have been very easy for Job just
to say,
hey, okay, just for him to make some up
make up some kind of sin,
or to say, okay, yeah, you guys are right.
I repent. ~ I've asked well,
the old formula, ~ I have sinned,
I repent of my sin. I'm asking for the
church for prayers and forgiveness of
sins.
All right, he could have done that,
e easily could have done that just to get
them off his back.
Because his three friends are really,
really after him. But integrity,
honesty, ~ demands otherwise.
So Job could not honestly say that he
agreed with the three friends just
to get them off their back. And so in
these chapters,
he claims his innocence and again issues a
challenge
to God to meet him. And so Job,
first of all, in chapter 29, Job
remembers.
His former life, how I used to be.
Alright, so in chapter ~ twenty-nine,
beginning in verse one, Job further
continued his discourse and said,
~ that I were as in months past,
as in the days when God watched over me.
And so he thinks about when God blessed
him,
when his lamp
Shone upon my head, and when by his light
I walked through darkness,
just as I was in the days of my prime,
when the friendly counsel of God was over
my tent,
when the almighty was yet with me,
when my children were around me,
when my steps were bathed with cream,
and the rock poured out rivers of oil for
me.
And so notice he remembers how God blessed
him in the past.
But you notice how in these verses he
kinda indicates,
but now God God doesn't do this.
In other words, when he says, that as I
were in months past is in the days when
God watched over me. And so he assumes
that God is no longer watching over him.
Now again, ~ this kind goes along with
chapter nineteen.
He says some things through here that that
kind of just
You if you take it out of context and just
think about they just don't seem right,
just don't seem true. It seems like he's
accusing God of some things.
But yet I think, as I mentioned before,
that because God knows his heart and Job
is is searching for answers,
he's searching for truth, he has up and
downs.
He's not like the Pharisees who ask Jesus
questions and test him,
or make statements to to bring out Jesus
to try to trap him.
Job is sincerely questioning
And he's going to accept the answers that
God gives him.
Well, God doesn't give him a whole lot of
answers,
he just gives him a bunch of questions.
But for Job, that's enough for him to know
that God has not abandoned him,
that God has not forsaken him.
Again, notice in verse three of chapter
twenty nine,
when when God's lamp shone upon my head,
as if God is not shining upon him anymore,
and when his light I walked through
darkness.
Just as there was in the days of my prime.
And so again, he's assuming that God has
abandoned him because he's suffering.
Job has. Job is suffering, that is.
But yet we know that God does not abandon
him.
In fact, God is the one that's bragging to
Satan,
I say bragging kind of loosely,
but that's that's that's, you know,
bringing up Job before Satan. Have you
considered my servant Job?
That he is blameless, he's upright,
he turns from evil, etc. And so
God thinks highly of Job. But Job doesn't
know that because he does
not have chapters 1 and 2. Now he should
know that because of
his relationship to God, but sometimes we
lose sight of that when things
are going bad and they're going really bad
for Job.
All right, now as we continue in chapter
29,
verses 7 through 10, Job at one time was
publicly respected.
Verse 7 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,
and the aged arose and stood. The princes
refrained from talking
and put their hand on their mouth.
The voice of nobles was hushed,
and their tongue stuck to the roof of
their mouth.
And so again he had the respect in public
of these.
And of course, this shows us something
about the culture in which Job lived.
You know, the young men saw me,
verse 8, and hid, and the aged arose and
stood.
And so he demanded respect from the aged,
and the young knew they didn't belong in
his presence,
because again of the great respect he had.
And then, verses 11 through 17,
Job was commended for a social concern,
his social concern. When the
Ear heard, then it blessed me,
when the eye saw, then it approved me,
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.
I put on righteousness and it clothed me.
My justice was like a robe and 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 the
From his teeth. And so all these things
that Job did,
he was into, we might say, social justice.
And of course that term's got a lot of
meaning,
so I don't mean it in the bad way,
I mean it the good way, whatever that is.
Okay, but anyway, but you see how he took
care of the blind,
he took care of the the crippled,
he he helped people, he was benevolent,
and that's who he was in the past.
In verses eighteen through twenty he talks
about living expectant
of a happy reward because he had been
righteous.
Then I said at verse eighteen Then I said
I shall die in my nest
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.
And so in these verses, you know,
he expected to to to live and to die a
easy death.
Because again, he that's what he expected.
And again, this retribution theology is in
the back of this.
If I live righteously, then nothing but
good's gonna follow me.
If I live wickedly, then I don't have
struggles.
And he's having all kinds of struggles,
and so he doubts, you know, he's his hope
of of dying a nice death
is is seemingly escaped him, at least at
the moment.
But again Job is going up and down.
And then Job's prestige in his community
was very high,
as he indicates verses twenty one through
twenty five.
Men listened to me and waited,
and kept silence for my counsel.
After my words they did not speak again,
and not my speech settled on them as dew.
They waited for me as for the rain.
And they opened their mouth wide as for
the spring rain.
If I mocked at them, they did not believe
it,
and the light of my countenance they did
not cast down.
I chose the way for them, and sat as
chief.
So I dwelt as a king in the army,
and as one who comforts mourners.
And so as Job reflects on his past.
He did all kinds of good. And so again,
in Job's mind, why then am I suffering the
way I'm suffering?
And again, he will begin to question,
and he has, chapter 19 is a perfect
example of that,
to question God and the integrity.
All right, but something about him knows
that just something isn't right about that
theology. All right, now in chapter 30,
Job laments his presence.
present condition, how I am now.
And so notice in verse one,
he ri he endures ridicule. Notice,
but now they mock at me, men younger than
I,
whose fathers I disdained to put with the
dogs of my flock.
Now again in this culture especially,
and I'm sure we can we can even see this
in our culture,
at least in this sense here,
Is that you know the young people are even
ridiculing him.
And of course back in this day the young,
you know, the younger a person was,
the lower on the totem pole he was.
But even to make it worse here,
he says, These are the very ones whose
fathers I disdained and gave them
put them with the dogs of my flock.
But now the the ones I disdain,
their children are now mocking me.
And then he's also reviled verses two
through eight,
indeed what profit is the strength of
their hand to me?
Their vigour has perished. They are gaunt
from want and famine,
fleeing late to the wilderness,
desolate and waste, who pluck mallow by
the bushes,
and broom tree roots for their flood,
or for their food. They were driven out
from among men,
they sat shouted at them as at a thief.
They had to live in the clefts of the
valleys and caves of the earth and rocks,
among the bushes they braided,
under the nettles they nestled.
They were sons of fools, yes, sons of vile
men,
they were scourged from the land.
And so again he's con continues this as
he's reviled from these younger ones
whose whose fathers Job had put with the
dogs of his flock.
And so now they're ridiculing him,
and so he is reviled by them. Verses 9
through 19,
he mentions his suffering, and now I am
their taunting song.
Yes, I am their byword.
And so he became the object of their
derision.
Verse 10 They abhor me, they keep far from
me,
they do not hesitate to spit in my face.
Because he has loosened my bowstring and
afflicted me,
they have cast restraint before me.
Now the he there goes back to God because
God has loosed me,
loosed my bowstring. And so in other
words,
he's pinning this on God. At my right hand
The rabble arises, they push away my feet,
and they raise against me their ways of
destruction.
They break up my path, they promote my
calamity,
they have no helper. They come as broad
breakers under the ruinous storm,
they roll along. Teres are turned upon me,
they pursue my honor as the wind,
and my prosperity has passed like a cloud.
And now my soul is poured out because of
my blight,
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 the collar of my coat.
He that is God has cast me into the mire,
and I have become like dust and ashes.
And we said earlier that, you know,
Job's boils that he received in chapter
two,
that was just the beginning. And so here's
some some allusions here
to his physical appearance, his physical
affliction.
Notice he says, My bones are pierced in me
at night,
and that seems to be indicating pains,
and his bones are hurting. Gnawing pains,
take no rest.
Notice his garment is disfigured because
his body underneath that garment
is disfigured. It binds me about the
collar of my coat,
and so it seems to indicate he's got some
swelling and all kinds of stuff going on,
but he is suffering miserably at the
present time.
And so in verse twenty through twenty
three,
notice how Job is appealing to God.
I cry out to you, God, but you do not
answer me.
I stand up and you regard me.
But you have become cruel to me.
Again, the you hear is God, you have
become cruel to me.
With the strength of your hand,
you oppose me. You lift me up to the wind
and cause me to ride on it.
You spoil my success. For I know that you
will bring
me to death and to the house appointed for
all living.
Through verse 23. Now,
of course, again, as I said before.
Job is up and down and he's struggling and
he's truly,
honestly seeking answers. And so he says
some things here that if
we didn't consider that, if we didn't
consider the context,
we'd say, Man, how can this guy be living?
He's accusing God of all this kind of
stuff,
blaming God for this. We know God hadn't
left him.
We know God is not cruel to him.
We know that God does not oppose him,
but yet he feels that way.
Because again, he's suffering immensely.
And again, because of this retribution
theology,
he knows he hasn't sinned to that extent.
And so why is God doing this to me?
He must must be cruel. There's no other
explanation for it.
And so in verses twenty-four through
twenty-six,
Job is showing why God should show him
sympathy and show
him some compassion. Surely he would not
stretch out his hand,
verse twenty-four, against a heap of
ruins.
If they cry out when he destroys it,
have I not wept for him who was in
trouble?
Has not my soul grieved for the poor?
In other words, I have been.
Aware I have helped the poor, I've tried
to help the poor,
and so I've I've done these good things,
and so why, God, are you allowing these
bad things to happen?
But when I look for good, verse 26,
evil came to me. And when I waited for
light,
then came the darkness. And so again,
Job is giving reasons why God should
consider him and ease up on the
punishment.
And then verses 27 through 31 says,
Job further describes his suffering.
My heart is in turmoil and cannot rest.
Days of affliction confront me.
I go about mourning but not in the sun.
I stand up in the assembly and cry out for
help.
I am a brother of jackals and a companion
of ostriches.
In other words, he has been prepared.
Put out as it were in the wilderness.
He has been, you know, shunned.
He has been excommunicated, if you will.
My skin grows black and fa falls from me.
My bones burn with fever.
In other words, describing some more of
the physical suffering that he's gone
through. My harp is turned to mourning,
and my flute to the voice of those who
weep.
And so he is lamenting and his present
condition.
But again, in his mind, he's like,
You know, I don't deserve this because
I've been righteous.
I've been doing good my whole life.
And so, why, God, is this happening to me?
And then finally, in chapter 31,
Job makes an oath of innocence,
an oath of innocence that sets the stage
for God to answer him in a moment.
Well.
I say in a moment, but there's going to be
some Elihu speeches in between all that.
And so in verse 30 chapter 31,
he says, I have made a covenant with my
eyes.
And again, here well, let me just read
this.
Why then should I look upon a young woman?
For what is the allotment of God from
above,
and the inheritance of the Almighty from
on high?
And so in verse one, again,
he's pointing out that he is not sinned.
Now
Now had he committed adultery,
had he not made a covenant with his eyes,
had he looked on another woman and done
more than that,
then maybe he would be suffering.
You know, the suffering that he's doing
now would be just.
But he hasn't done those things.
He hasn't done those things. In fact,
he says he made a covenant with his eyes
that he would not look upon a woman.
And so again, he's showing his
righteousness here.
And then for what is the allotment?
Verse three is not destruction for the
wicked.
And disaster for the workers of iniquity.
Does he that is God not see my ways and
count all my steps?
And so, in other words, you know,
the wicked truly sh would be disaster come
upon them.
The wicked destruction would surely come
upon them.
But again, Job is not in that category,
and he knows he's not in that category,
yet he's suffering immensely. Verse five
if I've walked with falsehood
Or if my foot has hastened to deceit,
let me be weighted on honest scales,
that God may know my integrity.
Now notice he's going to say, and this is
why why this is sometimes called
an oath of innocence. You know,
if I am not innocent, then let these
curses come upon me.
If my step, verse seven,
has turned from the way, or my heart
walked after my eyes,
Or if any spot adheres to my hands,
then let me sow and another eat,
yes, let me harvest, let my harvest be
rooted out.
In other words, here's the curse lament.
Now again the oath requires God to either
activate the curse
or to clear up the one making the oath.
And as we go through this, note the if
then statements.
Chapter 31, 7 through 34 is full of if if
then,
and then 38 through 40 if-then statements.
And then when we get to chapter or verse
35 of this chapter,
we'll see Job's challenge to God.
But as we continue, notice in verse 9,
if my heart has been enticed by a woman,
or if I have lurked at my neighbor's door,
then let my wife grind for another,
and let others bow down over her.
And that's, you know, that's you know,
if I am not, in other words, in verse
nine,
if if my heart has been enticed by a
woman,
or if I have lurked at my neighbor's door,
you know, if I've done these things,
then let this curse come. But again he is
so confident that he has
not done those things, but yet why am I
suffering?
Verse eleven, for that would be
wickedness,
yes I would be in in iniquity,
deserving of judgment. For that would be a
fire that consumes to destruction.
And would root out all my increase?
If I have despised the cause of my male or
female servant when they complained
against me, what then shall I do when God
rises up?
When he punishes, how shall I answer him?
Did not he who made me in the womb make
them?
Did not the same one fashion us in the
womb?
Or if I kept from the poor
From their desire or cause the eyes of the
widow to fail.
Now, in other words, he's he's again in
the beginning of these oaths,
he's saying, I've done these, if I haven't
done these things,
then bring out this curse. And the things
that he talks about here
are benevolent things. They're things that
would have fit into that social,
he he was the social ~ help that he was is
just,
you know, he's bringing all that up.
Or if I had eaten my morsel by myself,
so that the fatherless could not eat of
it,
but from my youth I reared him as a
father,
and from my mother's womb I guided the
widow.
If I have seen any one perish for lack of
clothing,
or any man without covering,
if his heart has not blessed me,
and if he was not warned with the fleece
of my sheep,
If I have raised my hand against the
fatherless when I saw I had help in the
gate,
then let my arm fall from my shoulder,
let my arm be torn from my socket.
Verse twenty three, for destruction from
God is a terror to me,
and because of his magnificence I cannot
endure.
If I have made gold my hope,
or said to find gold, you are my
confidence,
if I have rejoiced because my wealth was
great,
and because my hand had gained much,
if I have observed the sun when it shines,
or the moon moving in brightness,
So that my heart has been secretly
enticed,
or my mouth has kissed my hand,
and this is referring to idolatry type
things,
this also would be an iniquity deserving
of judgment,
for I would have denied God who is above.
Verse 29: If I have rejoiced at the
destruction of him who hated me,
or lifted myself up when evil found him,
indeed I have
not allowed my mouth to sin by asking for
a curse on his soul.
In other words he was kind to his enemies,
he did not ask curse upon them.
If the men of my tent, verse thirty one,
have not said, Who is there that has not
been satisfied with this meat?
Then he says in parentheses verse thirty
two,
but no surger sojourner had to lodge in
the street,
for I have opened my doors for the
traveller,
in parentheses.
Verse thirty three, if I have covered my
transgressions as Adam,
by hiding my iniquity in my bosom,
because I feared the great multitude and
dreaded the contempt of families,
so that I kept silence and did not go out
of the door.
And notice he goes back to Adam,
if I covered my transgression as Adam.
Isn't that interesting?
But then here's the oath verse thirty
five,
O that I had one to hear me. Here is my
mark.
O that the almighty would answer me,
that my prosecutor had written a book,
and his prosecutor he's talking about God,
surely I would carry it on my shoulder and
bind it on me like a crown.
I would declare to him the number of my
steps like a prince.
I would approach him.
And so here he is he is laying it down,
you know, that the Almighty would answer
me.
And so he wants God to answer his
complaints.
And then he finishes out with these three
verses,
verse thirty eight If my land cries out
against me,
and its furrows weep together,
if I have eaten its fruit without money or
cause its owners to lose their lives,
Then let thistles grow instead of wheat,
and weeds instead of barley. And then we
have this statement,
the words of Job are ended. And so this
completes
~ Job and his speaking. Now he will say a
few things to God when
God starts asking him all these questions,
but so far as his major speeches,
this is the end. And so in this claim of
innocence,
this
You know, Job is is calling upon God to to
answer.
And of course, this has been going on
throughout the whole book,
but here it kind of intensifies.
And as we mentioned earlier, it it leaves
the setting here that it's
requiring God to either activate the
curses because Job has not been
who he claimed to be, either do that or to
clear
Job and make him.
Declare him innocent. And so again,
as we look at this, Job is claiming his
innocence.
Again, it would have been easy for him to
just say,
just agree with the friends, okay,
I've sinned, I repent, I ask your
forgiveness,
and then he'd get them off their back.
But again, Job's integrity does not allow
that.
He could not do that, and so he claims his
innocence.
And not only does he claim his innocence,
but he calls upon God to bring down these
curses.
on him if what he says is not true.
And again we think of passages like Thou
shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God and passages like that,
but again realize that Job is searching
for answers
and he's honestly inquiring and he is
willing to accept the answer that
God gives him. We've seen that in the his
statements that he's mentioned about
his former faithfulness, and we'll see
that when we get to the section where God
questions Job. But when we think about
this claim of innocence,
again we realize that just because we're
suffering doesn't mean that
God is punishing us for evil because we
did some kind of evil.
But rather he allows these things,
and you know, again, as we mentioned,
Job has no clue of what we can read in
chapters one and two.
So he doesn't know the dialogue between
Satan and God.
That God is actually allowing Satan to do
these things.
Now, again, it doesn't say why he allows
Satan to do these things,
but again, he he allows him, and Satan has
to have permission from God.
And so we appreciate your listening to
this episode.
And when we think about ~ and again,
the the main the main thing to get out of
this is that,
you know, God, because we suffer doesn't
mean God is punishing us for sin.
Now, sometimes he does chastise us and we
deserve it.
But if we're living righteously,
we still can suffer, but even if we're
suffering,
it's not God that's leaving us.
In fact, God might be proving,
like He's doing here, at least in part,
proving something to Satan, that we're not
going to cave when all these
bad things happen. So stay faithful,
keep the course, knowing that your labor
is not
in vain in the Lord. And so keep living
righteously.
Again, we appreciate your being with us.
And we'd invite you as we have a few more
lessons on the book of Job
and then begin our next season with
Stephen and Forrest.
Shining brown.
Praise this salvation has been brought
down,
~ glory. Praise the world's gospel.
Salvation has been brought down from
heaven.
Go preach it until today to people in
sorrow.
Tell today until tomorrow. Preach the word
of God that
we might wear a shining crown.
Salvation is full and pre-stin's
presentation.
Bless the news all over the land and see
your kitchen and tail for in every nation,
tail for all over creation, praise the
Lord,
bless the Lord's salvation has been
brought down
All alone without a friend he suffered to
pay it all.
Yes, he paid it all. Jesus paid it all.
In his blessed promises, sweet victory can
be found.
Praise his crossing way. Salvation has
been brought down.
glory. Praise the low soul. Salvation has
been brought down from heaven.
And go on, show and show on, show until
the world around preaching until today
too.
People in sorrow, tell today and tell
tomorrow,
preach the word of God that we might win a
shining brown.
Tell the lost the Lord, salvation is full
and free to sin,
and spread and send blessings all over the
land and sea.
Go to them. Tellafar in every nation,
Tata for all over creation. Praise the
Lord,
bless the Lord, salvation has been brought
down.
There's a blessed home prepare over in
glory land,
in my glory land.
Blessed glory land. I have trusted in his
love and now I am heaven bound.
Praise his falsely name. Salvation has
been brought down,
glory, praise the words of salvation has
been brought down from heaven.
Go and show and show and show until the
world around.
Tell today, to people in sorrow,
tell today until tomorrow. Preach the word
of God that we might bring a shiny.
Salvation is full and free to spinners
spread
and has the news all over the land and see
them.
Tell the farm in every nation,
Tata Farm, all over creation. Praise the
Lord,
but the Lord's salvation has been brought
down.