[0:00] The opportunity to take your Bibles and go to the book of Job, Job chapter 4.! We will be in Job 4 and 5 this evening. Job 4 and 5.
[0:11] ! I will read the text in its entirety because I think it does us well to hear it. But don't be overwhelmed by the number of verses for we won't be going verse by verse in our exposition of it.
[0:28] I think I told you when we got into this, into the book of Job, we're going to have to cover big chunks at a time so that we can get it in its proper context because if we pull a verse out or we look at this verse and we can build a whole doctrine and a whole theology which is right on this verse that is set in the context of it being wrong.
[0:49] And I'll show you why in just a few moments. But before we do, let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for the day you've given us and we are so thankful for the opportunity to get together.
[1:01] We're thankful for the fellowship we can enjoy. We're thankful for the encouragement that that brings to us on a daily basis. And Father, we thank you for now our time in your Word. So as we come to your Word, we pray that you would open our hearts and minds to it, that you would give us wisdom to understand it.
[1:18] Lord, that you would give us a desire to long to know it. And we pray that the truth of it would be that which resonates within us. We thank you for all that is going on throughout this place and ask that Christ would be magnified in each and every area, among each and every student and each and every teacher, and in all ways that you be glorified.
[1:39] Thank you for our time. Thank you for this day. And we ask it all in Christ's name. Amen. If you remember, the introduction to our book in the first two chapters poses the dilemma to us, the dilemma that is unknown to Job himself or his friends.
[1:58] And it is the dilemma that Job is a righteous man, complete in all of his ways, walking in integrity and in faithfulness before the Lord in the patriarchal or pre-patriarchal times.
[2:08] So during the days of Abraham or even the days before Abraham. So the time where there is neither priest, there's no tabernacle, there's no sacrificial system, there's no law, but rather it is the faithfulness of God's people that is really extended out of the Garden of Eden in that faithful lineage of Seth.
[2:28] And we find that Job is living a complete, faithful life. But yet there comes the trial of Job's life, we know, because there was a day in heaven when the sons of God stood before him and Satan was there as well.
[2:44] And we know that in a moment that Job lost every blessing that he had. He lost all financial blessings. He lost all physical blessings. His children were taken away from him in a moment. And then we know that possibly up to a year later, at least some time later, that Job's health was affected.
[3:01] And not only was his physical health affected, but also his mental health was affected because even his own wife in her despair said, Are you still holding fast to your integrity?
[3:12] Why don't you curse God and die? So in each and every way, Job has been afflicted. And we know that these afflictions have come as a result of Satan's accusation. For the name Satan just literally means the accuser.
[3:26] For his accusations of who Job is and that his faithfulness was first of all tied to the blessings which God had hedged him in with. And then the second accusation was that his faithfulness was tied to his health.
[3:39] And this is one of the ways that Satan is attacking the faith and even the integrity of Job. And all of that has transpired in heaven, unknown to anyone on the earth.
[3:50] In the third chapter of Job, Job laments the day of his birth and even the day of his conception and calls for that day to be a day of cursed darkness.
[4:03] And Job really is in the deepest dark despair. It is he who speaks first after seven days and seven nights of silence from the three friends who had made an appointment to come gather together and with him.
[4:17] And now that he has uttered such words, words that said, Why am I even here? Why did God even allow me to live? Why did he see fit to give me a mother that would love me and nurse me and not just allow me to die?
[4:30] It would be better for me if I was dead. Why does God allow the tormented to continue to exist in these questionings that Job asked? And now we get to chapters 4 and 5.
[4:43] And I will ask if you'll stay with me as I read them to you. It says, Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered, If one ventures a word with you, will you become impatient? But who can refrain from speaking?
[4:53] Behold, you have admonished many, and you have strengthened weak hands. Your words have helped the tottering to stand, and you have strengthened feeble knees. But now it has come to you, and you are impatient.
[5:04] It touches you, and you are dismayed. Is not your fear of God your confidence and the integrity of your ways your hope? Remember now, whoever perished being innocent, or where were the upright destroyed?
[5:17] According to what I have seen, those who plow iniquity and those who sow trouble harvest it. By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of his anger they come to an end. The roaring of the lying and the voice of the fierce lying and the teeth of the young lions are broken.
[5:31] The lion perishes for lack of prey, and the whelps of the lioness are scattered. Now a word was brought to me stealthily, and my ear received a whisper of it. Amid disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, dread came upon me, and trembling, and made all my bones shake.
[5:49] Then a spirit passed by my face. The hair of my flesh bristled up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance. A form was before my eyes. There was silence, then I heard a voice.
[6:00] Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before his maker? He puts no trust even in his servant, and against his angels he charges error. How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed by the moth.
[6:17] Between morning and evening they are broken in pieces. Unobserved they perish forever. Is not their tent cord plucked up within them? They die yet without wisdom. Call now.
[6:29] Is there anyone who will answer you? And to which of the holy ones will you turn? For anger slays the foolish man, and jealousy kills the simple. I have seen the foolish taking root, and I cursed his abode immediately.
[6:41] His sons are far from safety. They are even oppressed in the gate, and there is no deliverer. His harvest the hungry devourer, and take it to a place of thorns, and the schemer is eager for their wealth.
[6:52] For affliction does not come from the dust, nor does trouble sprout from the ground. For man is born for trouble as sparks fly upward. But as for me, I would seek God, and I would place my cause before him, who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number.
[7:08] He gives rain on the earth and sends water on the fields, so that he sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety. He frustrates the plotting of the shrewd, so that their hands cannot attain success.
[7:21] He captures the wise by their own shrewdness, and the advice of the cunning is quickly thwarted. By day they meet with darkness and grope at noon as in the night. But he saves from the sword of their mouth, and the poor from the hand of the mighty.
[7:37] So the helpless has hope, and unrighteousness must shut its mouth. Behold, how happy is the man who God reproves! So do not despise the discipline of the Almighty, for he inflicts pain and gives relief.
[7:52] He wounds, and his hands also heal. From six troubles he will deliver you, even in seven evil will not touch you. In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword.
[8:04] You will be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and you will not be afraid of violence when it comes. You will laugh at violence and famine, and you will not be afraid of wild beasts, for you will be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field will be at peace with you.
[8:17] You will know that your tent is secure, for you will visit your abode and fear no loss. You will know also that your descendants will be many, and your offspring as the grass of the earth.
[8:28] You will come to the grave in full vigor, like the stacking of grain in its season. Behold this, we have investigated it, and so it is. Hear it, and know for yourself.
[8:40] Job 4 and 5. There is a lot in there that is right, right? There is a lot in there that is good. There is a lot in there that if we were to take it verse by verse, we could build a good, solid doctrine and say this is what the word of God says.
[9:01] But in building that doctrine, we would fail to see the reality that in its application, it is absolutely wrong.
[9:12] This is what is so difficult about the book of Job. And I want you to see this evening, the answer of conventional wisdom. The answer to Job's grumbling, his murmuring, his despair, his distraught countenance.
[9:29] The answer of conventional wisdom. We find conventional wisdom in many places throughout scripture. Most notably is the book of Proverbs. It is a collection of wise sayings, of Proverbs, of conventional wisdom.
[9:46] And by conventional wisdom, we would say that these things are matters which are normally true, or we can expect to be true. But it is not as if it is a promise of God that it will always be true.
[9:58] There are a number of things in the book of Proverbs that we would love to cling to and say, yes, if I do this, this will happen because this is exactly what the book of Proverbs tells us. There are a lot of instances in there and we can look at a number of verses and we can see them and say, yes, this is true, absolutely true.
[10:16] And then we would be left scratching our head. For it is also in the book of Proverbs that we would find that we have never seen the righteous forsaken nor begging bread. But if we were to read any amount whatsoever of church history, let alone Fox's book of martyrs and the martyrs which follow that, we would find that indeed the righteous have starved to death at times.
[10:38] And we would be struck by the reality that the word of God says the righteous are not forsaken, nor have I seen them begging bread. But our experience tells us that we have seen those who profess righteousness indeed starving to death.
[10:55] And we are met with this complex and this issue that we have to handle. And it is there that we need to balance this thing called conventional wisdom. And what we find in Eliphaz is the answer of conventional wisdom to Job's problem, to the reality of what's going on in his life.
[11:14] And that is the first argument to say that is why it sounds so right, because it is at times absolutely right. And it is absolutely correct. And it is well worth ordering and living your life accordingly, but there is danger in that and hopefully we will see it in just a moment.
[11:32] Because just because something is normally true or can't expect it to produce the results that would be normal does not mean that it is always going to be so.
[11:46] This is one of the grand dangers in our day and time in which we would call, name it and claim it, theology. That if I do this, then God will do that. That if you give to my ministry, God will bless you.
[11:58] And people will say, well, you can go back into the Old Testament. You can open up the book of Malachi. And God says, test me in this and see if I will not open up the storehouses of heaven. Give to me and see if I won't rain down upon you.
[12:09] But what if God just calls you to give it all away and you never get anything back? Is he still good? Or is he only good if he gives back?
[12:19] Because you told me, God, you would give back. See, the issue we have with conventional wisdom. And here, after a week of silence, Eliphaz the Temnite answers.
[12:35] Most people, and I believe accurately so, assume that Eliphaz is the oldest of the three friends because in that day and time, the custom was for the oldest to speak first.
[12:47] We know from the remaining portion of the book of Job that all three of his friends are older than Job. And Eliphaz is the oldest of the three friends. So he's the oldest one sitting there.
[13:00] And he is the Temanite, which the book of Jeremiah tells us the region of Teman is known for its wisdom. It is known for its intellect and for its understanding in complex issues.
[13:13] So not only is he the oldest one there, he's also the one from the region that is known for its wisdom and understanding of matters. So he is the wise sage.
[13:25] He is, just so that we understand it, the nicest of Job's three friends. He at least begins his speech with a little bit of courtesy and says, If I venture to say something, would it offend you?
[13:38] The other two do no such thing. As a matter of fact, the further we progress, the less compassionate his friends are. And by the time we get to the last speech of Eliphaz, which is his third one, all compassion is thrown out the window, for he may have begun with a little level of compassion, but that is far gone by the time we get to his latter speeches.
[13:59] So he at least has a little bit of composure about him. And he is one who has considered these things. He is not speaking rashly. He is not speaking in haste.
[14:10] Rather, he has sat for seven days and seven nights and considered what was before him. He has heard Job speak. He has taken his time to listen, for he never interrupted Job's speech.
[14:21] We don't know how long transpires from the time when Job began speaking to Eliphaz, started his speech, but we do know that at least he took time to listen, for he responds to what he heard from Job.
[14:35] And he responds with the wisdom of Timon and the wisdom of the day and even the wisdom of our day. His response is indeed right on a certain level.
[14:46] And this is the thing that bothers us so much. If we're just going to be honest with our interpretation of the book of Job is, yes, these are absolutely right.
[14:57] So how can it be wrong? Well, it's because conventional wisdom does a number of these things to us. And it brings us to this danger of the superficial, that there's danger in this reality of a superficial wisdom that is really known as conventional wisdom that says, I have it figured out.
[15:23] And it is the wisdom of the world. And the danger here is that Job is going through such a horrendous time. His life is so miserable.
[15:34] His time is so distraught that Job wants to curse the day of his birth, the day of his conception. He would rather be dead and be on an equal footing with all that have went before him.
[15:45] He doesn't even know why he's still alive. And the response of conventional wisdom is, Job, this is happening because it's your fault. And Eliphaz has the answer.
[16:01] As a matter of fact, he introduces his mind frame in the fourth chapter and he applies it in the fifth chapter. And by the time he concludes it, he says, this is wisdom, Job.
[16:12] Listen to it and apply it to your life. And what he is saying is, Job, if you would just hear me out. And if you would just do what you've told everybody else to do. By the way, he at least acknowledges that Job had been some help to people before.
[16:27] He introduces his argument with the reality. Job, you've helped other people in similar situations. You've walked beside them. You've caused the feeble to stand, the distraught, to be comforted. Now, Job, if you would just live what you preach, you would be okay.
[16:40] And then he begins this repetition of phrases that are so right. But the grand danger of the superficial is found right there.
[16:55] For it says, I know why this is happening. And I can tell you what to do to fix it. It has the answer already set without having to seek wisdom beyond man's abilities.
[17:14] And even greater than that, it is the danger that says that God operates in a prescribed order. Do good and you're blessed.
[17:25] Do bad and you suffer. If you quit doing bad, then you'll be blessed and you'll be seen as good. And this has God prescribed and figured out. And really, here it is.
[17:36] And this is why it causes such distress among us when we look at the book of Proverbs. And we so desperately want Proverbs to be right. And we so desperately want everything that Eliphaz says to be right.
[17:48] Because if it's right, guess what? We have God figured out. And the danger of the superficial is it's not only figured out the world's problems, it's also figured out how God works.
[18:00] And in having figured him out, we can determine how he will respond. It is a prescription of if I do this, he has to do this. And if he does this, it means I'm this.
[18:12] And all of a sudden, it removes this element of faith and trust and reliance. Because we have it all figured out. That if I train up my child in the way that he should go, then when he is old, he will not depart from it.
[18:27] So all I have to do is do my part when he's young. What answer do you have when he's not? When he seems to have departed? What answer does conventional wisdom give you then?
[18:40] Or that I've never seen the righteous going hungry, nor have I seen them begging bread. What about when you lose your job? And all of a sudden, you're trusting on God, but you're saying, but God, I was giving, I was walking, I was in all this stuff.
[18:54] And now, God, it doesn't seem right. What about this? If we feel like we have God figured out in the superficial, then we can dictate to him what he will do in our lives.
[19:10] And that's dangerous ground. Because it's essentially saying, God, you have to bless me because look at how I'm living. And that was the wisdom of the day.
[19:26] Now, it was a time without law. There were no Ten Commandments, the Decalogue. There was none of that. None of the law of Moses was there. But it's still the wisdom of today.
[19:38] And by the way, that is the wisdom that is so foundational to so much of the world. Do the right thing for it's the right thing to do. Why? Because the expectation is if you do the right thing, right things will be done back to you.
[19:49] And that's the world's wisdom. And that's how believers want the economy of God to operate. That if I do what God tells me to, then he will bless me.
[20:04] And there's the danger that we find in the superficial, conventional wisdom. It is the danger of saying that I know how it all works.
[20:14] And now, we don't just go into that blindly. Because Eliphaz here, he had a foundation on which he rested that wisdom upon. And here is the importance of our foundation.
[20:27] What do you rest wisdom upon? It is the study of knowledge, right? We start getting into philosophy and all of those things.
[20:38] And where do we find the root of wisdom? And where is wisdom? And how can we determine what is right and what is wrong? And get into all those concepts. But notice the world view here of Eliphaz.
[20:50] He says, he gives us two of them, by the way. He says in verse 8, according to what I have seen. So here's his first foundation for the wisdom he possesses.
[21:00] The foundation would be his observation. Everything that I have seen has declared to me that the righteous are blessed and the wicked are condemned. And everything I have observed, according to what I have seen.
[21:16] Now, be careful any time you begin to base wisdom upon your perspective and your observation. Because there is no possible way that we have seen every circumstance.
[21:29] Job's situation is unique. And we know that Eliphaz has not seen into the courtroom of heaven as we have with the introduction of chapters 1 and 2. Everything he has seen has been limited to the scope of his world, which would be the physical world that surrounds him.
[21:45] And so observation is limited to the physical realities before us. And he's basing wisdom upon what he can perceive. Be careful of using that one as a foundation.
[21:58] His second foundation for wisdom is found later on in that fourth chapter. And it is there in verse 12. Now a word was brought to me. So now he's basing wisdom upon his observation, what I have seen.
[22:12] And now he's basing it also on this special revelation. This revelation, by the way, completely agrees in some points with his observation. But I will show you where his revelation is in complete contrast with his observation.
[22:29] Okay? Because his revelation shows you that no man is righteous, none is good, that we're all born into death. And you say, well, yeah, absolutely. We're all sinners. Paul said that. None are righteous, no, not one. Hey, this is before all of that, right?
[22:40] There's no standard of the law. And so what he is saying is this special revelation given to me is that man is just born into sin. And there's his natural inclination to sin. And there is nothing good within him.
[22:50] That sounds so right from the New Testament. But he has also just seen his observation is there are some who do good and are blessed. So which is true?
[23:02] Is it natural for all men to do wrong? Or is it true that there are some that are doing good and are blessed? And be careful, too, of this revelation.
[23:14] Because it's really unique, this revelation, which he saw in the middle of the night. And he was kind of at that moment of darkness when people are sleeping. And it caused the hair on the back of his neck to stand up on all those goosebumps and everything. By the way, don't base theology upon goosebumps.
[23:26] Don't do that. Don't base your doctrine upon goosebumps. Don't base it because it makes you feel kind of funny. There's a lot of things that make you feel funny, like if you eat the wrong food and all that other stuff. But don't base your doctrine upon goosebumps.
[23:36] But he definitely has one. But here's something that I want you to pay attention to. This account of this revelation is unlike any other scriptural revelation where it says, Thus saith the Lord God.
[23:50] This vision has no mark of authenticity of being a revelation from the Lord God Almighty. We don't know the source of this revelation.
[24:01] Other than the fact that he was in a dream. And in his dream, he saw something in the darkness of spirit that he could not make out. I would also caution you about accepting revelations from spirits you cannot make out.
[24:12] For God is a God of revelation. And he always shows himself as he is. And so it seems so right. You say, but it sounds so right, Pastor. Right.
[24:23] Because the truth and the half-truth march really close together. March really, really close together.
[24:33] And you say, but it has to be right because it says right there that can man be just before God? Can a man be pure before his maker? He said, no, none of us are.
[24:46] But it does tell us elsewhere in scripture that we can be seen as just and pure and forgiven and restored. So be careful of this conventional wisdom and know where you rest your wisdom upon.
[25:05] There's a grand importance placed upon the foundation of your wisdom. Eliphaz based his wisdom upon what he had seen and what he had dreamed.
[25:16] We stand in a greater way that wisdom comes from the word of God. And we have the greatest source of wisdom given to us.
[25:27] It is to seek the face of the Lord God Almighty. And wisdom must be rested upon his word. And it must be thus saith the Lord God Almighty. Not this is what I think. This is what I've seen.
[25:38] You know, there's a lot of things I have seen. And I have observed. But I'm not going to declare that they are absolute truths. I can say that this is the common occurrence.
[25:51] But that's a big difference between saying this is absolutely true. Because the truth is the revelation of God found in the word of God to the people of God.
[26:06] By the time we get to the fifth chapter, we have the application of this wisdom. And it is here that we see the harm of rigid application.
[26:18] There's great harm here. And if we don't read the fifth chapter, and all we read is the fourth chapter, we would be left going, Yes, amen, Eliphaz, preach it, brother, say it again.
[26:29] Because conventional wisdom tells us that the righteous are blessed. And those who sin are judged. We find that all throughout scripture.
[26:43] We find it everywhere. But it is the rigid application of that truth that brings so much harm. Because is it always true?
[26:56] Or are there moments where we simply do not have God figured out? By the way, the book of Job is not about Job. It's not about Eliphaz. It's not about any of the friends.
[27:08] The fact that we are introduced in the beginning to the courtroom of heaven, and we see God prominent in the first two chapters, and then by the time we get to the end of the book, it is all about what God is saying, and God is prominent at the end of the book.
[27:22] The book is about the Lord God Almighty. It is not about Job. And so when we do rigid applications, again, it is not saying that this is what is true in Job's life.
[27:34] What we're saying is, this is how God operates. And who are we to tell God how he operates? And there's grand harm that is done to humanity when we do that.
[27:51] And this is the application that we have to take from this. It is good to know the realities of Scripture. That normally, if we walk in faith, God will bless us.
[28:02] That normally, if we are in disobedience, we will be judged. That normally, these things will happen. Those are good because it calls us to an accountability. It helps us to iron sharpen iron and say, hey, brother, I see you walking in a path that's probably not most beneficial for you.
[28:18] But friend, have you looked around the world and seen the wicked prospering? Have you seen the unrighteous living in worldly blessings?
[28:31] Have you seen the sun and the rain shining and falling upon the godly and the ungodly? And while these matters aren't normally true and they can be expected, we can also say that, but you're in a spiritual battle.
[28:45] And there will be a moment when you are enlisted in the army of the Lord that you will be persecuted, you will suffer. You may be some of those in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 11, that were delivered, that were brought back from the dead, that were raised up, that fought the battles and won the victory.
[29:02] Or you may be those unnamed ones at the end of the chapter that nobody wants to be. You know, those who wandered around in sheep's clothing, those who were sawn in two, those who were killed that this world was not worthy to possess and they died.
[29:15] So the heroes of the faith include the ones who overcame and the ones who were overcome. The heroes of the faith include those who prospered according to the world and those that the world was not even worthy of, and we don't even know their names, but they died immediately.
[29:37] And so we have to be careful how we apply this. And in the fifth chapter, we see the harm that's done in that rigid application. Because Eliphaz begins to apply the truth that he's just stated, that God blesses the righteous, that he judges the wicked, and says, therefore, this is what I've seen.
[29:58] He says, Job, before he says, Hey, Job, if it was me, I would cast myself upon the Lord God Almighty. Well, sure, that sounds right. Job's been doing that. Job was casting himself upon the Lord God Almighty when the curses came.
[30:14] Right? But notice the unsympathetic wording of Eliphaz. He introduces the fifth chapter and says, I've never seen the unrighteous prosper.
[30:27] As a matter of fact, if I see the unrighteous putting a root down in the ground, I immediately curse their abode, and then their children will die. He's just talking to a man who lost all of his kids in an instant.
[30:39] And what he says is, if I see the wicked prospering, I curse their abode, and I wait until I see God wipe their children off the face of the earth.
[30:51] And I see that the hungry will take his land. He's talking to a man that the raiders have just stolen all of his possessions. He says, Job, cast yourself upon God.
[31:05] What he's saying is repent. For God is great, and he is. And we love this great praise of who God is, who does great wonders.
[31:16] All of these things that he declares about God are true. God is great. But the reality is, is Job knows this. But God is so much greater than Eliphaz recognizes.
[31:33] Because in telling him to repent, and declaring God's worthiness for him to cast himself upon, notice what he says at the end of the chapter. Just pay attention to it. He says, Job, if you will do that, you will be enriched.
[31:48] You'll have a full life. You'll go to your grave full of days with abundant blessings. He's talking to a man that's wanting to die and has nothing. Everything Eliphaz promises Job are earthly possessions.
[32:12] Do you notice it? Job, if you repent, your children will be safe. What kids? Your possessions will be strong.
[32:23] He even says, your house will be secure. You won't have to worry about it. A house fell on his kids. So not only is it unsympathetic to the individual he's talking to, it's unrealistic to apply it to this life.
[32:38] And what he is saying is, Job, if you would just repent, there's some sin in your life. There's something you need to repent of. And if you would only repent, God will bless you. Friend, that message is still being preached today.
[32:50] If you're not experiencing the blessings of God, it's because you have a hidden sin. And you need to repent of your sin. And if you would just repent, God will pour his blessings down upon you.
[33:01] And notice the emphasis today and the emphasis of Eliphaz is every one of these blessings are physical, material blessings in this life. Here's the great harm of rigid application.
[33:13] It does not leave us longing for a better place. If we say God blesses the righteous and condemns the wicked, and he has to bless us in this life, then that blessing is confined to this world, and it takes away the longing for a place where the truth is made right.
[33:34] The reality is, those things are true, but it's only found in the presence of the Lord God Almighty himself. He does bless the righteous.
[33:45] He does condemn the wicked. He does cast out the unrighteous. He does exalt them. But he doesn't promise that he would do it in this life. The rigid application of this wisdom in this life leaves us testing our faith based on where we stand in the world around us.
[34:06] And it leaves us in comparison saying, well, if I'm not experiencing all of these blessings and all these financial securities and all this thing, then God must not accept me. It takes away the longing for a better day and a better place.
[34:22] Sometimes the only thing we can hold on to is, this world might not be worthy of me because this world is not made for me. I'm here for a moment, but this isn't the place of my blessing.
[34:40] And that's a big difference. Conventional wisdom tells us what we can expect in this life. Heavenly wisdom tells us even if those expectations aren't met, we know the God who's in control and he will make it right someday.
[34:57] The reality is that Job gets every one of these things. But he does not get them because he repents. Job never repents. He never says he has sin.
[35:10] He covers his mouth and says, woe is me. He speaks of the reality that he has spoken of things that he knew not of. But he never said, you know what? There was a secret sin in my life and I got to confess that sin.
[35:22] There's no confession of a sin because there is no sin. These things aren't happening to Job because he has sinned in some special way. These things are happening to Job because this world is not the end result.
[35:36] And while we may can say that these things are normally true, sometimes they're not and that's okay. Because we lean on the one who's going to make it right someday.
[35:53] And we lean upon him as our expectation. He is our good even in the midst of the bad. So be careful in answering with conventional wisdom.
[36:10] Answering your own life that way and even answering those around you that way. Sure, we ought to take a moment of self-evaluation. What do you think Job was doing for seven days?
[36:25] I would dare say that he who was sacrificing animals for each one of his sons and consecrating his sons was probably taking a moment to evaluate his own life. We ought to take a moment of self-evaluation and say, Lord, is there any sin in me?
[36:39] Search me, know me, help me to know my wicked and desperate ways. But if we find none, then don't let the enemy or the friends around you convince you that you have done something wrong and so God is not blessing you because he is the blessing.
[36:55] not anything else in this world. He is the blessing. And we find that in Job chapters 4 and 5.
[37:08] Thank you, my brother. You have... You have...