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[0:00] Amen. Job chapter 36 verses 1 through 25 will be our text. We know that they didn't bring much consolation or comfort, but rather they brought a lot of accusations.

[0:37] And they were appalled at his, not only first at his appearance, but later on at his take on what has happened. He declared his own innocence, whereas they said, surely you're not innocent because look at everything that's happened in your life.

[0:49] And they are literally looking at him and therefore making the assumption that since he is going through trials, he must be a great sinner.

[1:00] They are backwards reasoning. They're looking at what is before them and making an assumption that they are not free to do. But we are found at the end of their cycle of discourse, their conversation of three, where Job speaks, they speak, Job speaks, they speak.

[1:16] That happened three times, Job responded, and then eventually they all sat quietly and then Elihu begins to speak. He evidently has been present throughout the entirety of their argument, but he does not give three rounds of speeches.

[1:31] He speaks, waits, nobody responds. He speaks again, waits, nobody responds. He speaks the third time, waits, and nobody responds. And then he does something that really just shocks the world, if you will. Well, he gives a fourth speech, because no one else in the book of Job is given a fourth speech.

[1:47] He speaks extra. He goes a little further. And that fourth speech is found in chapters 36 and 37. They are the precursor to when the Lord God himself will begin to speak.

[1:59] They almost, I don't want to say almost, They seem to open the door and to prepare the way for what it is that God himself is going to say as it pertains to what is happening in Job's life.

[2:14] Throughout all of this, what we have seen is we do not need the wisdom found from man. We don't need retribution theology. We don't need the wisdom of our circumstances seem to declare this is happening, so this is what the world tells us is going on.

[2:28] We don't need the wisdom of our own experiences, because Job has said, I'm righteous. God is withholding his grace and mercy. We need someone other than us to speak a truth into our life.

[2:40] Elihu does speak truth. He's never condemned by God. He's never interceded for by Job the way the other three are. But yet, even Elihu leaves us falling a little bit short.

[2:52] Everything up through chapters 37 are preparing us for when God does speak. God never speaks as it pertains to why Job has suffered.

[3:06] But it does not mean he doesn't speak to Job's suffering. And some of that is prepared by this fourth speech of Elihu. In it, we will see very clearly his introduction in chapter 36, the first few verses, that it is divided into two parts.

[3:24] And I'll show you those two parts as we get into it. But let's read our text, Job 36, starting in verse 1. We'll read down to verse 25. Then Elihu continued and said, Wait for me a little, and I will show you.

[3:37] Yet there is more to be said in God's behalf. I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and I will ascribe righteousness to my maker. For truly my words are not false. One who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

[3:48] Let me just stop right here. This is the one verse that many commentators say, Man, this guy's so full of pride. Because he says, Look, one that is perfect in knowledge is among you.

[3:59] And Elihu is the youngest one there, and he's saying, I have complete knowledge. And so be careful of jumping to that conclusion. Because the same word used to apply Job's behavior, that Job was perfect or complete in all of his ways before men and among men, God calls him perfect.

[4:22] Now Elihu refers to his knowledge as complete. That does not mean blameless. That does not mean perfection. That just means I have a full knowledge about what I'm about to say. That may seem a little prideful to us.

[4:34] We're kind of taken back by it. But yet we never see God speak against it. So again, we take it at its face value. It says, Behold, in verse 5, Behold, God is mighty but does not despise any.

[4:46] He is mighty in strength of understanding. He does not keep the wicked alive but gives justice to the afflicted. He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous. But with kings on the thrones, he has seated them forever, and they are exalted.

[5:00] And if they are bound in fetters and are caught in the cords of affliction, then he declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they might magnify themselves. That they have magnified themselves.

[5:12] He opens the ear to instruction and commands that they return from evil. If they hear and serve him, they will end their days in prosperity and their years in pleasures. But if they do not hear, they shall perish by the sword, and they will die without knowledge.

[5:27] But the godless in heart lay up anger. They do not cry for help when he binds them. They die in youth, and their life perishes among the cult prostitutes. He delivers the afflicted in their affliction, and he opens their ear in time of oppression.

[5:41] Then indeed he enticed you from the mouth of distress. Instead of it, a broad place with no constraint. That which was set on your table was full of fatness. But you were full of judgment on the wicked.

[5:52] Judgment and justice take hold of you. Beware that wrath does not entice you to scoffing. And do not let the greatness of the ransom turn you aside. Will your riches keep you from distress, or all the forces of your strength?

[6:06] Do not long for the night when people vanish in their place. Be careful. Do not turn to evil, for you have preferred this to affliction. Behold, God is exalted in his power, who is a teacher like him, who has appointed him his way, and who has said, You have done wrong.

[6:23] Remember that you should exalt his work, of which men have sung. All men have seen it. Man beholds it from afar. Job 36, verses 1 through 25.

[6:35] I will let you know, when we look at this chapter, and I'm going to break it down for you in just a moment, there are certain markers that show us the transitions within it. And this is where we're going to kind of help it.

[6:45] In the New American Standard, and if you're reading other translations, it has this word too. Verse 5 says, Behold, God is mighty. And then he goes on a little bit further down in verse 12.

[6:55] Behold, God is exalted. And then if we were to go to verse 26, it says, Behold, God is exalted, and we do not know him. So all of the beholds are the interruptions and the introduction into a new point that is being made.

[7:09] And the reason we divide it as we have, I'll go ahead and tell you on the front end, is because he declares in verse 3 that I will ascribe righteousness to my maker.

[7:20] And what he is saying is there's much to be said. Now the friends of Job have said much about Job and about his suffering. Job has had much to say about his counselors and the useless windbags that they have been.

[7:33] Much has been said about the affairs of the world. Job has said, Oh, I wish that there was an intercessor to stand before me, one who would put his hand upon me and put his hand upon God, one who would tell me the things that are going on.

[7:46] Elihu steps up and says, I'll be that guy. I'll stand in the gap. I will be the messenger, or as it says in chapter 32, the angel, which just literally means messenger, sent to speak into your situation.

[8:00] But notice, Elihu never speaks about the situation. And he never speaks about Job's friends. One thing that is so different in Elihu's speeches is that he is not speaking about the worldly affairs, rather he is continuously pointing them beyond the circumstance and the situation to the true cause and center of it all.

[8:28] And here he says, I have much more to say about God. And if you will be patient with me, this is because he's given a fourth speech. He says, I'm going to speak longer than you, so give me a little bit of time, because there's so much more, and I will ascribe righteousness to my maker.

[8:46] Really, the book of Job is the earliest book in Scripture. This is really telling that there is this grand early theology that God is the maker and creator, not only of the heavens and earth, but also of us.

[8:59] That there is a sovereign divine maker. And this is the earliest reference to that in Scripture, because Job is the earliest writing in all of Scripture, if not one of the earliest recording poetic forms in all of history.

[9:16] But he says, I will ascribe righteousness. Now, he's going to do that in two ways. In the first part of chapter 36 up to verse 25, he ascribes righteousness in his maker's ways, how he does what he does, and why he does what he does.

[9:33] Starting in verse 26, and following through the remainder of the 36th chapter, and even in chapter 37, he will ascribe righteousness to his maker's works. It is there that he will begin speaking of the heavens, and the expanse, and he speaks of clouds, and rains, and he does exactly what God does in his speech, is he starts way out there, and then he brings it down way down here.

[9:57] He says, look above you. You've already said that. He says that God is the one who creates heavens, which, amazing, it'll be an amazing testimony when we get to it. You know that Elihu declares that the water evaporates, goes into the clouds, and God carries the clouds somewhere, and causes the rain to fall where he wants?

[10:14] We call that the water cycle. And Elihu had that written in Scripture, had already declared that, long before scientists determined that's what was actually happening. Okay, that's the literal interpretation of the original writing.

[10:27] So long before scientists figured out that what happens is this thing called evaporation, it goes up to the clouds, and then the clouds dump it elsewhere. Elihu says the water ascends up into the clouds, and the clouds hold it, and God calls the clouds over here, and then it falls on this portion over there.

[10:42] And that's where he begins. He says, look at his ways. Look at the works of God, and the lightning, and the thunder. Elihu even says that electricity is necessary for thunderstorms. He starts speaking of these bolts of lightning going through there.

[10:53] All these things that scientists found out later. And it's declared very clear in Scripture why some of the earliest scientists, if not all of the earliest scientists, were Christians and believers. They were Bible-reading, God-fearing believers because they understood that God, one of the great principles to understand, is that God is knowable, and he has created man with a mind to think and to reason, and he created him to understand his creation, and creation has a purpose, and the purpose is to testify to the Creator, and when you begin to separate that from science, then you do not have true scientific knowledge.

[11:27] So we don't have to be scared of the scientific facts. It's because it is a testimony to God. It is a complete aside. I'm so sorry about that. That's the next passage. But he begins to speak of his works, and his works testify.

[11:40] What's amazing, he would even take it down to when the animal gives birth. How does God do his speech? When God speaks, if you've read ahead, or you've read the book of Job before, God begins out here, starts talking about the heavens and the earth, and were you there?

[11:54] Were you there when I ascribed the earth on nothing, and I told it to stay there? And then he begins, and he brings it all the way down, and brings it down, and brings it down to the depths of the sea, which, by the way, is the same place Elihu brings it.

[12:04] And God declares his works. But Elihu declares his works first, and he ascribes righteousness to his maker because of the works of the testimony. But before he talks about the works, verses 1 through 25, he talks about his ways.

[12:20] He says, I want to ascribe righteousness to my maker regarding his ways because what has been Job's number one accusation? The ways of God are not right.

[12:35] I'm righteous, but I'm suffering. I haven't done anything wrong. And yet, look at me, I've lost everything. Elihu has condensed it in saying that Job has, he didn't say this verbatim, but if you read Job's speeches, this is what you would walk away with, right, if you had to condense it to a sentence.

[12:56] Essentially, what Job has said, what good is it in being righteous? What reward is there? And we've already kind of looked at that.

[13:08] But the ways of God do not seem right in the eyes of Job, but they seem exactly right in the eyes of Job's three counselors because they're saying, oh no, it's because you're a sinner.

[13:18] But we know Job's not. So how do we reconcile that? Just to be quite honest, if Elihu wasn't in the passage, by the way, we would still be left in limbo saying, but it doesn't seem right, God.

[13:34] Sure, Job wasn't there, but it still doesn't seem right. But he says, I'm going to ascribe righteousness to my maker. And the first way he does it is through his ways. And we see that in verses five through 25.

[13:46] So notice the righteousness of his ways. The righteousness of his ways. The first thing that we notice, Elihu's already said this, but he says it again because it bears repeating, that God has a gracious purpose regarding his ways.

[14:05] Even our suffering. God has a gracious purpose. Notice what it says here. Verse five, because verses one through four are introducing the two righteous ascribing events.

[14:22] They introduce the rest of the speech. Verse five says, behold, here's that word again, behold, God is mighty and does not despise any. He is mighty in strength of his understanding. The literal translation there is he is mighty in his heart.

[14:35] God is mighty and he is mighty in his heart. That's just a good way of saying that God is intentionally doing what he's doing and he's doing it with wisdom. And he doesn't do it with any personal favoritism.

[14:52] He doesn't do it with any leaning. He does not do it with any hatred. He doesn't do it because he despises any of his ways. He says he does not despise any.

[15:03] He is mighty in strength and understanding. And so he begins to speak of God's purposes with this reality that God is right and mighty in what he does even if we do not understand what he's doing.

[15:21] And then he begins to unfold what it looks like. He says he does not keep the wicked alive but gives justice to the afflicted. It seems on the surface that he's talking about retribution theology. Now we have the grand narrative.

[15:32] Now let's just stop right here because I know you get so tired of hearing it but just so that we understand what retribution theology is and you say, Pastor, we got it. You say it every week and you say it sometimes twice a week and sometimes 15 times a week.

[15:43] Right. But guess what? We need to really understand it. That is not the theology that teaches about eternity. Retribution theology is for this life only. If I do good here, I get good here.

[15:55] If I do bad here, I get bad here. It's not talking about eternity. We would love to think, well if I do good then I'll get good in eternity. That's not that.

[16:06] It is if I do good here, I get good here. If I do bad here, I get bad here. So double retribution theology is if I'm getting bad here, it must be because I'm being bad here.

[16:18] It removes the hope of eternity. And we don't focus in that realm. We're on this side of the cross. We know Christ.

[16:29] Elihu, Job, none of them knew that. But we do. But we see a truth that Elihu is pointing beyond themselves, beyond their circumstances, beyond their worldview to a hope that he was longing for, just to be quite honest, that we have realized.

[16:47] And it is a declared truth. And notice the declared truth. He does not keep the wicked alive. But he does not turn his eyes off the righteous.

[17:02] He's also saying that God judges the wicked, but he favors the righteous. No, but notice where he keeps the eyes of the righteous. He says he does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but he raises them up with kings, and he sets them on the throne.

[17:18] That's a lower translation that he promotes them, and he establishes them on the throne. He says, oh, so if I'm righteous, then I get to be put up on the throne? Well, the answer to that is yes. Just not in this life.

[17:30] Because we will be seated with Christ on his throne. See, notice the hope that Elihu is pointing to that we have realized in Christ. Why? And that shouldn't surprise us because everything points to the cross.

[17:42] Charles Berger said, you can take a plow and you can plow a straight row anywhere you are in scripture and plow it straight to the cross, and you can find the fulfillment of what you're preaching there. So we make our straight row to the cross, and we stand at the cross of Calvary and say, yes, that's what Elihu was hoping for, that God preserves the righteous.

[18:00] He establishes them. He sets them on thrones. He raises them on high. We may not see it now, but there will be a day in eternity where Jesus says, those who overcome will sit with me upon my throne.

[18:11] And he has already told us in Revelations, he is sitting on his father's throne. So here's the news. The righteous that endure, the righteous that persevere, the righteous that overcome get a throne in the end.

[18:24] It's just not our throne. We're sitting on his throne. We get a crown, we will cast at his feet, but we are promoted and raised on high. But Elihu doesn't stop there because he's speaking here of the gracious purpose of God.

[18:37] So he establishes that God is great, he's mighty, he's definitely not going to keep the wicked alive, he's not going to forsake the righteous, but that doesn't necessarily mean the righteous won't suffer.

[18:50] Because the worldview of that day is, if that's the truth, then why am I suffering? Because he gives us the purpose of God. Notice what he says. And if they are bound in fetters, so the transition from verse 7 to verse 8 couldn't be more stark.

[19:05] He said, God raises up the righteous and he sets them up on a throne. He promotes them in eternity. But, if for a season they may be bound in fetters and suffering.

[19:18] Now it's poetry, so it's poetic. You can stay with the imagery there. Right? But if for a moment they seem to be constrained and bound up, it's not that God has forsaken them.

[19:29] Notice what it says. It says, and if they are bound in fetters and are caught in the cords of affliction. Job would say, that's me. What does it tell us? Then he declares to them their work and their transgressions that they have magnified themselves.

[19:45] What does he say? When God binds them in fetters, when he lets the cords of affliction wrap around them, God isn't just doing it to be mean. He hasn't taken his eyes off the righteous.

[19:55] It is there that he is declaring to them their failures. And that's in this life. You say, well, Job had no failures. Right?

[20:07] He didn't. And sometimes we are bound in suffering and we're bound in trials. And it's not necessarily because of a known sin, but we all have failures. Right? Sometimes it is this casual drift away from the nearness to the Lord.

[20:22] This drift where we're not as close to him as we used to be. And in his grace, he bonds us in difficult seasons. I shared with some recently, I love the book of Proverbs.

[20:34] I love the proverb that says, Lord, give me neither riches nor poverty, lest in my riches I deny you and I forsake you, or in my poverty I forget about you and I go steal.

[20:46] And I told the group of men, I was on to, sometimes I think my riches are a little bit higher than what God thinks they are, but I don't want either riches nor poverty. Why? Because you want to live in that beautiful place of dependence.

[21:01] Because what happens when you're not in this place of dependence? It's just drift. It's just drift. And God says, but I don't want you to drift, I want you to be near me.

[21:14] He has not taken his eyes off of us in the midst of our suffering, he's binding us to reveal something of our own character to us. Job didn't have any known sins, but Job found out enough about himself at the end that he covered his own mouth and he says, I was wrong.

[21:32] How did he figure that out? God put him in the binds of suffering and revealed more of himself to him.

[21:43] And he said, woe is me. He says that God is gracious because then he declares to them what he wants to say. Remember, Elihu's already said, just wait on God, God will speak.

[21:54] And in the end of the book, God speaks. He says, if you're in misery, don't give up, don't quit. We'll get to that in just a moment. Stay put, stay where you're at because there will be a day where he will speak to you because it is where he's gotten you to the place that you can hear him.

[22:10] Because it tells us in verse 10, he opens their ears to instruction. Quick question, when are you most teachable? When you are the most self-confident or when you're in the greatest moment of desperation?

[22:24] when does God really open your ears? Spurgeon used to proclaim to preachers when he spoke at a pastor's training institute which he held at the church, he'd always tell his preachers, he said, the darkest moments come before the dawning of the brightest day.

[22:45] And he was a man prone to deep bouts of depression. He always said, the darkest moments come before the dawning of the brightest day. Why? Because it's in those dark moments that God opens our ears to instruction.

[23:01] And we begin to hear and learn things and receive things that we never knew. Notice the gracious purpose of God's ways. Because if that's what it takes for us to hear him, that's what he will do.

[23:18] But Elihu says, but he never takes his eyes off of you. He hasn't forsaken you. He's just getting you to a place where you can hear him. Notice the gracious purpose.

[23:33] Second, we notice the restorative promise. There's the promise of restoration. Now, be careful because this is not naming and claiming theology and we're not saying, well, yeah, this is what will happen.

[23:44] We're not doing that, okay? Just because at the end, Job is giving everything back two-fold doesn't mean we're guaranteed to get everything in this life two-fold. Because Christ has already told us that whatever we give up in this life, we get back ten or a hundred fold, but we get it in the next life, in the life to come.

[24:00] Okay? So, our restoration, full restoration, is in eternity. We understand that. But there is the restorative promise. There's the gracious purpose. There's the restorative promise.

[24:10] Look at what he says. If they hear, verse 11, if they hear and serve him. This is great. I love this. Because it's not just the hearing of the ear.

[24:22] James says that faith without works is what? Dead. Right? He said, well, I heard you, God. But notice, even Job says, if they hear and serve him. Very early in scripture, there is this connection between works and faith.

[24:38] I think I know where we're going to be at Sunday morning. I'm not going to tell you yet about that. And I love the fact because it does the same thing. It connects faith with works. And it's awesome. It's one of the five books we haven't been in yet in Sunday morning.

[24:51] So I'm really excited about it. But it's the same thing. It is making this connection. He says, if they hear and serve him, God gives us promise.

[25:02] They will end their days in prosperity and their years in pleasure. You say, yes, that's what I'm going for. If I hear him, I'm going to do everything he wants me to. That way, at the end of my life, I'll have prosperity and I have all these riches.

[25:14] Wait a minute. We will end our days. To us, in Christ, the end of our days is the day we step into his presence and there will be prosperity and pleasure and enjoyment for all of eternity.

[25:30] And he promises us that he will restore. But notice this verse 11 is a repentant theme. It is not just hearing what God has said.

[25:43] It is hearing and responding to what God has said in the midst of that trial, in the midst of that suffering, in the midst of that struggle. He tells us in verse, if we were to go to verse 15, he delivers the afflicted in their affliction and he opens their ear in time of oppression.

[26:02] Again, God speaks and he pulls his people out of affliction when they hear him. There is the promise of restoration for those who hear.

[26:14] We don't need to miss that. But as much as there is the restorative promise, there is also the sovereign punishment because notice what it says. But if they do not hear, you remember what he said in verse 5.

[26:28] Behold, God is mighty that does not despise anyone. He is mighty in strength of understanding. He does not keep the wicked alive. The end of verse 6 says, but he gives justice to the afflicted. We've been looking at that.

[26:39] The righteous are restored, but he does not keep the wicked alive. God will not be mocked. It is here, this sovereign punishment. But if they do not hear, those in the midst, by the way, this is a good word of caution to us.

[26:52] I know that we're not saved by works and I know all those things, but we also don't want to despise the chastisement of our heavenly father, the book of Hebrews says. They will have to let it have its restorative purpose.

[27:03] If we're going through something, then we need to let the Lord speak to us and tell us in our hearts and minds what it is that he wants to tell us. Why? Because if we do not hear, they shall perish by the sword and they will die without knowledge.

[27:16] God says, if I'm talking and man rejects me, Elihu is speaking before Christ and we understand that, but what we're looking at too is this understanding in the world that those who refuse to turn and submit to a holy God will someday endure the punishment of that holy God.

[27:37] He's already told us back in verse 35 that many will go through suffering and never cry out to God simply because of this one word, pride. I'm going to take care of this.

[27:49] I'm going to do it. I can handle this. And they refuse to humble themselves and submit to one who can rescue them. But if they do not hear, they shall perish by the sword and they will die without knowledge.

[28:03] But the godless in heart lay up anger and they do not cry for help. Notice this. They do not cry for help when he binds them. They die in youth and their life perishes among the cult prostitutes.

[28:14] And that's just a really good wordplay saying they make the wrong God their God. They refuse to submit to the Lord God in the midst of struggles and trials and they make the God of this world.

[28:28] They're God. And he says that God and his sovereignty will punish them and allow them to do that. He'll allow them to die that death because he does all things mightily.

[28:43] But here right in the middle of this is kind of what I think is the meat of this passage. I want you to notice our humble posture. And this is where I believe that Elihu is really speaking to Job.

[28:57] because he says I'm going to tell you that God is righteous in all of his ways. He has a purpose for doing it. He's calling you back to himself. He wants to restore you. But if you fail to heed his word if you do not listen to him he is certain to punish you.

[29:11] The trial notice this he was saying the trial you're going through is not the punishment. Too often we feel like the trial and the struggle is the punishment.

[29:22] Elihu says the trial is not the punishment. the trial is God's grace calling you to himself. The rejection of that grace brings the punishment.

[29:35] Job's friends saw the suffering as the punishment for something that they thought Job had done. Elihu says this suffering is not the punishment. The suffering is God's calling and his gracious act of mercy upon you wanting you to come near him.

[29:52] Too often in this world we see difficulties as the punishment. But the difficulties are not the punishment. The difficulties are God's gracious ways of drawing us closer to him.

[30:02] How we respond in the midst of those trials and struggles will dictate how we are punished. It will dictate if we endure if we do reject him and say God forget about this.

[30:13] And this is why we cannot be afraid of the trial and we dare not seek to get out of it. And this leads us to our humble posture. How are we to live in the midst of this trial? And Elihu gives us four things that he saw Job trying to do and there are four truths that really are sought by man today in the midst of trials.

[30:33] If you're going through something, these are one of four ways that people try to get out of the trial. What Elihu is saying is don't get out of it. Stay in it and listen to what God has to say to you.

[30:46] And he begins it with this. Beware. Verse 18. Beware that the wrath does not entice you to scoffing and do not let the greatness of the ransom turn you aside.

[31:00] Now that's a bad way of saying it this way because it doesn't translate real good into English. I'm going to try to give you a wordy translation. He says don't let anyone fool you and think they can buy you out of the trouble you're in.

[31:13] First way man tries to get out of struggle is let someone else redeem them. Hey brother let me help you get out of that. You know one thing I had to learn as a pastor and it's hard is that sometimes we need to let people stay in the struggle.

[31:33] Sometimes I have to stay in the struggle because that's where God is speaking. We naturally want to pull everybody out of it. We want to snatch them out of the fire of sin yes.

[31:43] But sometimes we need to let them endure that moment where God can speak to their hearts and what he's telling Job is Job don't let it get so bad that you think you can have someone else ransom you.

[31:57] Stay there and let God speak to you. Number two will your riches keep you from distress or all the forces of your strength.

[32:08] Second way he said do you think you can deliver yourself. Do you think you have the ability or the financial means or the prominence to get out of this mess?

[32:22] He says don't be confused. Let God speak to you in the midst of it. Don't constantly be trying to think of a way to get out of it by your own strength. Don't be thinking how can I overcome this?

[32:33] How can I do this? How can I work my way out? Don't be conniving and planning and scheming. He says this isn't for you to get out of. Why?

[32:44] Because deliverance is from the Lord and only from the Lord. So don't let someone else try to rescue you. And we're not talking about in Christ brothers and sisters in sin.

[32:55] Sure we ought to pull people out of sin and we ought to pull people out of this but sometimes we need to let people walk through the stuff they're walking through as we walk through it with them. Chatterat, Meshat, and Abednego went into the fire and the fourth one was in there with them.

[33:07] Sometimes we have to get in the fire with people. That's okay. Sometimes we need to have our clothes smell like smoke. He says don't think that by your own power you can get out of it.

[33:23] So Chatterat, Meshat, and Abednego said well I know a way we can avoid this fire. What if we just do what the king wants us to do and we get out of the fire? No don't do that. They would have never got to see God's deliverance from it.

[33:34] Number three. Do not long for the night when people vanish in their place. This is verse 20. This is a good way of saying and Job had said this by the way.

[33:48] Don't desire to die. something that's very near in my own life because I had a grandfather I never knew that took this route and my mentor in the faith took this route was that sometimes people in the middle of the pain just decide to end it all.

[34:16] And they take their own life. Job says don't go there. Now is it the unpardonable unforgivable sin? We're not going to say that. Because scripture says there's only one sin that's unpardonable and that's the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

[34:34] But in the midst of trials and the midst of struggles and the midst of pain some people give up and what Elihu is saying is don't desire to die and get out of it. And he's acknowledging this is a reality.

[34:49] It is because the pain is real. The suffering is mighty. We don't belittle the circumstances.

[35:03] And Elihu says that's not God wants to speak to you in the midst of that. So don't desire to get out of it. Number four. He says in verse 21.

[35:15] Be careful. Do not turn to evil for you have preferred this to affliction. Here's the fourth escape that some going through trials and tribulations do. Well if this is all I get forget it I'm going to go do what I want to do.

[35:29] If I'm going to suffer anyway hey let's throw caution to the wind and live how I want to live. Elihu says be careful.

[35:40] Don't just forsake God and go live however you want to live. If it's going to be bad let's just go bad all the way right. And Paul says if we have no hope let's eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.

[35:51] Be careful. Because in the midst of that what he is telling us is we need to assume the humble posture of being in the mess and waiting on God to speak to us and deliver us from the mess.

[36:11] Don't try to let someone else rescue you. Don't try to get out of your own strength and power. Don't try to end it by taking your own life. And don't just throw caution to the wind and give up.

[36:21] Four cautions. He says stay there. Allow God to speak to you.

[36:33] Why? Fourth and finally. We've got a great competition for preaching over here by the way. All your heads just go over there. I know they sound so much better than me. I don't mind babies by the way.

[36:44] It's okay. It's all good. I've been preaching to the sound of babies since I started preaching so it's okay. It was my kids and now it's my grandkids and I get it. But yeah. Fifth thing.

[36:57] Why can we assume that humble posture? Number five. There is the recalled power. Look at how he ends this. How can you stay there?

[37:09] Verse 22. Here's another. Behold. Behold. God is exalted in his power. Don't forget that. No matter how bad it is.

[37:20] No matter how difficult it is. No matter how dark it seems to get. God is still exalted in his power. Who is a teacher like him?

[37:31] If he is the exalted powerful one and he is the one teaching you opening your ears in the midst of that. Who is the teacher like him? If this is what the teacher thinks you need to endure to be taught.

[37:46] He is the exalted powerful one. Stay there. Remember his power. Who has appointed him his way.

[37:57] And who has said you have done wrong. Remember that you should exalt his work. Of which men have sung. All men have seen it. Man beholds from afar. Our whole reason for existence is to exalt and magnify the work of God.

[38:12] And sometimes that work is the work he does in our own lives. In the midst of that struggle and pain. And Elihu says I'm going to ascribe righteousness to his ways.

[38:26] Even his ways. When things don't seem to go our way. He's still doing. His work. So that his power can be seen.

[38:39]  And we see that in Job 36 verses 1 through 25. Thank you my brother.