April 23, 2025 • 52 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome into the Wednesday Bible Study. Excited to once again
open the Word of God. Today, we'll be continuing our
series through the book of Job. Today we turn to
Job chapter ten, Job Chapter ten if you want to
go ahead and get there. A couple of things to
kind of remind you of if it's your first time here.
My name's Rick Burgess, host of the Rick Burgess Show.
(00:22):
That's my day job. We do this Wednesday Bible Study
most every Wednesday. There's very few exceptions, and we thank
you for being with us. If you'd like to go
back and pick up archives of maybe Bible studies in
this series or any series that you missed, that's simple.
Just go to themanchurch dot com. You'll see a drop
down menu, use the media button and you can watch
(00:45):
the archives or you can listen to the archives audio only.
That is your choice. The manchurch dot Com is a
hub for men's ministry. We have all the resources you
would need to have a functioning, sustaining men's men industry,
reaching and discipling men. We provide speakers, we provide conferences.
We provide most importantly, curriculum and also devotionals for individual men.
(01:10):
Curriculum for small groups. We have five of those. Number
six comes out this fall. So if we can help
you in any way, contact us by just going to
Themanchurch dot com. A resource that will be out on
May the thirteenth. Men Don't Run in the Rain and
a book that I was just so excited to write
(01:30):
about growing up under the leadership of my father. And
if you have not read it, some of you went
to the conferences, you got an advanced copy. The hard
copies and the audiobook and the ebook come out on
May the thirteenth, and you can get it wherever you
get books, so I'll give you a heads up on
that too. Let's open up in a word of prayer
and let's start in Job chapter ten. Lord, thank you
(01:52):
for today. Lord be with us as we unpack your
Holy Word.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Today.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
May we learn this provocative book of the Bible, the
story of You and Job. There's so much to take
away from it, and Lord, it is just coming alive
again for those of us that may have read it
multiple times, just still seeing things that we missed the
last time, as you are now giving us nuggets from
(02:17):
this that maybe we could we could not handle earlier
in our sanctification. So help us to grow today, Lord
you'll be with us, give us the discernment of the
Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
In your name, we pray. Amen.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
All right, So let's go to Job chapter ten. So
last week Job has heard from Bill Dad, he's responded
to him and the friends, and today he's going to shift.
After complaining to his friends and to the readers to us,
Job now will turn to God. He is going to
(02:49):
address his complaint to the one and only living God.
Now this is not exactly a prayer, but it's kind
of a combination of what he has said before when
he was lamenting. And also it's going to you know,
it's going to include another death wish from Job before
(03:10):
we are done, just like we saw in chapter three.
So we see in verse one of chapter ten he
does not wait long to discuss the point that he
loathes his life, and he's already said, as we said
last week. We concluded this in last week's study. For
those that may have missed it and have not gone
(03:32):
back to catch it yet, we actually ended verse one
because it sets us up for verse two onward. In
chapter ten, Job said, the last thing we said last week,
I loathe my life. I will give free utterance to
my complaint, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
So Job is already shifting from talking to his friends
(03:56):
and just almost picture him turning if God were somewhere else,
and he's addressed as friends, and now he's making attorney.
He says, oh, and by the way, I'm going to
address you talking to God, and I will be bitter
and I will complaint. So he's let God know, as
if God doesn't know what's about to happen. And in
his first complaint in verses two through seven, now, remember,
(04:20):
it's so crucial to remember this. And I'm learning so much,
as I hope you are too. We have to remember.
And I know, Rick, you've already told it. I'm gonna
tell you again. He has no idea about the conversation
of Lucifer, and God has no concept of that. And
apparently from listening to the friends and they keep saying, too, Job,
(04:41):
you know what we have always been taught to believe,
and that was the theology of retribution. If God's turned
on you, you've done something wrong. That's what we've always known.
They have no they don't have First Peter, they don't
have the apostle Paul, they don't have all these things
that we know.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
About God allowing suffering.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
And what Job is saying and verses two through seven,
something's changing, he said, because it appears to me that
I'm being condemned without any charges. You have no charge
to bring against me, and I'm being condemned anyway, and
I don't understand it. I don't know what you're doing.
And so he says in verse two, I will say
(05:22):
to God, do not condemn me. Let me know why
you contend against me. What is going on? I don't
see it.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Now.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Remember we're never saying that just because Job was blameless,
that that meant he was sinless, and he doesn't think
that either. But what blameless means is there's nothing wrong
with us. Even the things I've done, I've asked for forgiveness.
I can't think of anything I haven't repented of. I
haven't done something that I refuse to repent of. What
(05:55):
is this about? What is your displeasure about? And he's
telling God, why don't you tell me? Have you ever
been there before where you kind of want God to
get on your timeline, which, by the way, he has
no part of. You talk about the one and only
living God. You think he cares about your timeline, I
have found him not to care much about that at all.
(06:18):
He's gonna do what he's gonna do when he's gonna
do it. And the sooner you realize that, really, the
better off you're gonna be. Just trust him, Just have faith.
I don't know what you're doing, don't know how long
you're gonna do it, but I trust you. I think
we need to kind of take the attitude even in
the New Covenant. And I love this this point when
Jesus finally decides to double down, He's built up about
(06:40):
over one hundred followers, and then he does they eat
my flesh, drink my blood. And he goes back down
to twelve and he looks to the twelve and he says, well,
y'all gonna go with them? And Peter tell us the
truth that we got no idea what you're talking about.
But where are we gonna go? I don't understand this,
but I don't know where else to go. I've seen
what you do, I know who you are. You have
(07:01):
everything we need. We're not going anywhere else. And I
think that we should we should look look look to
God that way. Hey, I don't fully understand every time
you're doing something. I can't grasp everything about you, but
I don't know where else I'm gonna go. You're better
than anything else. Uh, And I trust you that you
know what you're doing. Well, this is Job saying, I
(07:21):
just wish you would clarify what is going on between
us and I'm being treated like I'm evil, But I
don't think I'm evil?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So what am I missing? He doesn't know what we know?
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Remember that chapter three, And I see people that now
that we have access to God's explanation of these things,
they'll still out like they don't know when God's answered
a lot of.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
These questions on suffering. But Job is not. He doesn't
have access to what we have access to. So now
when we get to.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Three, you're gonna see this is going to kind of
begin a series of questions that seem to reflect how
Job felt and about how God was treating him. Now, remember,
I'm gonna keep pounding this because it really helps me
to understand what we're studying. He has no concept of
Romans eight twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
You know, well we'll quote that in a minute.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
You know, this is God's got it's all gonna be
good for those of us who love him, and he's
working at all things for good.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
He didn't have Romans eight twenty eight. He doesn't know
any of that.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
So keep that in mind when you start thinking that
job should know. He doesn't know yet. He's gonna know,
but he doesn't know. Now, look at three.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Does it seem.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Good to you to oppress, to despise the work of
your hands, and favor the designs of the wicked boll?
Speaker 2 (08:44):
We go there, don't we?
Speaker 1 (08:45):
So? I how I remember this being a real bone
of contention, speaking of my dad in the book Coming
Out When when when his grandson died his earthly death,
this was a time when my dad had watched me,
his son, leave darkness and repent and be redeemed by God.
(09:07):
He'd watched me come out of all this darkness. He'd
watched God transform me. He'd seen the holiness of my
marriage to Sheery. He saw God blessing the ministry, blessing
the platform that he had given us, all the way
through the children that were young when Shearry and I
were married, that I already had, and then adding all
(09:28):
the way up to five children, and now to this baby.
And I remember one of the first problems that my
dad had was, what have y'all done for God to
do this to you? I don't understand this. And he
started talking about what look at all these evil people,
look at all these people that do all these horrible things.
Their kids are fine, And that was one of the
things Dad struggled with. And we worked it out and
(09:48):
we hashed it all out and he got to where
he understood it. But that's one of the places we go,
don't we Why do these people that seem to be
so horrible, Why does their life seem like you're not
bothering them? Now, He's gonna ultimately deal with him if
they don't repent. And sometimes we also think that everybody's
life is going wonderful. When we don't really know these
people and we're not in their life, it may not
(10:09):
be as wonderful as it looks to us. And I
can tell you in the times we're living in the
life you see on Instagram, that's not the real life.
I promise you, no one ever posts my kid got
arrested for drunk driving tonight.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Let me post that for you. Setting down to jail
with her arm around them we're so proud of our
drunk driver. Uh So you just don't see those things.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
So so anyway, uh so, what he is saying is
that you you are you are treating me like I
am evil. And this is the one that kind of
throws me a little bit, is that he is He
is saying to God, you know, do you look at
(10:50):
three Do.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
You seem to enjoy this? Do you enjoy treating me
this way? Is this? Is this fun for you?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Which is an interesting statement because if you look at
the original language here that we translated here in the
English Standard version, which is what I use as my
study Bible, I just prefer it when it says doesn't
it seem good to you? If you took that and
translated literally, it is saying, are you smiling as you're
doing this? Why does this not bother you? The wicked
(11:23):
go unpunished? And I don't see this as a blessing
at all. I see this as oppression. See we would
now we should know that first Peter chapter one, six
and seven, and this you rejoice for a little while,
though now you're being grieved by various trials for a
(11:44):
little while. It may be necessary to test the genuineness
of your faith. This is an opportunity for you to
glorify Christ. I'm paraphrasing now, but that's basically what Peter
is saying. Pass the test, past the test. This is
a chance to Glorifa. What a platform this is. Hey,
let me tell you something. The difficulties I went through
and that what God saw me through. I got to
the point that I could see that as a blessing.
Job doesn't see that at all. I see this as oppression,
(12:08):
is what I see. He's confused and he's trying to
work it out at end time. If you know the ending,
it's gonna work out. So then we get to four.
Have your eyes? Have you eyes of flesh? Do you
see as man sees?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
You?
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Know what he's saying now? I thought you were above
what we do. I thought we were flawed and couldn't
really see these things. You're supposed to see everything perfectly.
You know what he's really saying here? Think about what
he's been through. Are you like these guys? Are you
just like my friends? I thought you were gonna be
me turning away from all this and see something different.
When I turn from them to you, I see the
same old garbage. I mean, it seems like that you're
(12:46):
seeing this the way they see it.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Aren't you better than them?
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Can't you see my heart the thing they can't see?
Can't you see God? Your eyes know my heart?
Speaker 2 (12:56):
They don't. Have you ever taken solace?
Speaker 1 (13:00):
And the fact that people may become against you and
you're looking to be right with God, and you get
to say, I've had to do this recently. Lord, you
know my heart. Now, I know what a lot of
people are saying about me, but you know my heart.
Job is saying you know my heart, and you're still
doing this to me. You know that I'm innocent. They don't,
and you're acting just like them, like you have the
(13:21):
same eyes they have. You can't see my heart. And
so he's trying to make the case, which he's right,
that God knows he's innocent, and God does know he's innocent,
and he wants to know. Then if that's the case,
why is this happening? Look at chapter five, I mean
five verse five, Chapter ten. Are your days as the
(13:41):
days of man? Are your years as a man's years?
Human life is limited? Why are you, who is unlimited,
acting like you have the same limitations as a human being.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
You don't have the same limitation.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Doubling down on what he said about the eyes, you're
acting as if you're just a man. You're acting flawed,
just like humans are. And these people think I've done
something wrong. But you're unlimited. You're all knowing. You know
the truth verse six, that you seek out my iniquity
(14:20):
and search for my sin, You Lord, God, search.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Out my faults, You search for my sin.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
If you look here at the original language, you probe
and can't you see since you're God, that I'm innocent.
There's a lot of people that could not know what
you know. But you're God, and you can get down
to the very marrow of my bones. You can see
everything about me. You know my every thought. You are
(14:53):
unlimited in your ability to investigate my innocence. So you
know that that I'm innocent verse seven, although you know
that I am not guilty. See there he tells you
exactly what the point he's trying to make in seven.
Although you know that I am not guilty and that
(15:13):
there is none to deliver out of your hand. You
know I'm innocent, but you're treating me like I'm guilty.
And here comes another foreshadowing. Have y all enjoyed the
foreshadowings as much as I have? How about this? There
is none to deliver out of your hand. Where's my redeemer?
(15:38):
Who can walk in front of you and make the
case that I'm innocent? Where's my redeemer?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
I don't have.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Anyone that can stand in front of you and declare
me innocent.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
But you know what we do, don't we? And his
name is Jesus. Amen.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have
destroyed me altogether. And I love this one. He's saying, Hey,
you're the one that made me. I'm your creation. So
would you make some evil person? You're the one that
made me? How can how can you now be coming
after the very man that you made?
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Right? This goes back to some things that we've seen.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
This sounds like the Garden of Eden to me, Right,
do you remember Adam's great statement, Well, you're the one
who made her, so ultimately this deception that just happened
with my wife and Satan, now she then pulled me
into it. The woman that you made now the one
I love about that? In the Garden of Eden, what
(16:49):
did Adam say when she was first.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Brought to it.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Wow, flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone. Here
is a great gift from God. He's glorifying God for
making woman. But then when woman got him in trouble,
he's like, well you don't want it made her? And
uh And so this sounds like job saying. He's not
saying you made somebody else. He's saying, you made me.
So if I am not, if I'm guilty, but then
(17:16):
you made me, I guess you made a mistake. So
he you know, he's remember I picture this just like
I did the last time that that job got all upset.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Now, eventually God's gonna have enough all this.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
We'll get there later. He's gonna have enough of all this.
He's listening right now and he's gonna.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Have enough of it.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
But what we see right now, I can just picture Lucifer, Oh,
Lucifer when he when Joe gets on these rants, I
imagine Lucifer getting the third that's with him saying, listen,
lean in, it's all hete here it comes. I'm about
to win. He is just about to reject God. He
is going to denounce God. He is so close, you
(17:57):
think is he gets madder and madder that Lucifer's like, come.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
On, come on, we are so close. We are so close.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I finally made him miserable enough that I'm gonna prove
that God's wrong about him.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
And God just sitting there going and he's gonna come through.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
It shows you that we are not God, because I
don't know how much longer i'd listen to somebody treat
me this way. But Job doesn't understand, and God knows
that too. He knows that this is a time for
him and his friends to learn some new theology. So
he says, you know that I'm innocent. You treat me
like I'm guilty. You're the one that made me. Now
you're going to just destroy the very man that you made.
(18:34):
And then you get to the next verses that are
coming up, and he starts at in eight. As we
just talked about, He's gonna go now and continue eight
all the way through twelve. This same theme that he
has in eight, and that is, hey, you made me.
Look look at nine. Remember that you have made me
like clay, and you'll return me to the dust, back
(18:55):
to creation. Remember this, Remember this the analogy in Genesis
three nineteen. Dust you are, and dust you will return
do you remember that after the fall? Do we also
remember Jesus talking about the potter and the clay? And
how does the potter get the clay ready? He molds it,
(19:16):
he crushes it, he smashes it so he can make
it into something new. Now Job doesn't know these teachings,
but he sure is leaning on them. He realizes pretty quick,
you made me like clay. He doesn't realize he is
now veering into the potter in the clay. And then
he says, and will you return me to the dust,
(19:37):
meaning he knows he has the concept that mankind was
made from the dust and we will return to the dust.
So this is him reminding God how he made humans.
And you also said we're going to return to the dust.
I guess that's where you're taking me. Verse ten.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle
me like cheese? This one? These are rare words.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
You don't really see this analogy much in scripture at all,
but you see this is even in the time of Job,
whenever this was. They do seem to have some concept
of babies in the womb. They seem to know something
about it because he's using an analogy here When you
(20:22):
see this, it's really when he's using this term, you
did you not pour me out like milk and curdle
me like cheese When you look at the original language here,
it really is more of an image of the fluid
in the sack inside the female's womb where the baby
lives in the body forms and you know, and this
(20:44):
is also another example of scripture telling us that life
begins at conception, because he's talking about himself in this point,
he would still be in his mother's wombs, still in.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
That fluid sack.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Where the baby is growing, and he's saying, we're are
you not there with me when I was in because
I guess they saw from birth that there's a milky
substance that seems to flow from the woman. And he's
talking more about that, And then he's not literally talking
about milk and curdling. He's using this as an analogy
of whatever comes out of the woman. This fluid is
(21:18):
what it looks like, and we know the baby is
there and you were with me even then, so look
at look you'll see in ten and eleven.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Also this is talking.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
About the body forming, which reminds us of what Psalm
one thirty nine thirteen. Look you clothed me with skin
and flesh and knit me together verse eleven with bones
and sinews. So we know that this is right out
of Psalm one thirty nine. When you knit me together
in my mother's womb, you knew everything about me. You
(21:48):
knew the number of my days before I had ever
even lived one again, life, according to the one and
only living God, begins at conception. Science has now confirmed.
But we knew it all along because God said that
that's where life begins. And you see everything he's talking
about in ten and eleven, that's prenatal. Okay, So, and
(22:10):
he's talking about God knowing him. Then you're the one
that put me together. You're the one that created me.
You nipped me together. Everything about me the way I
was formed my body.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
You did that. You knew everything about me. You made me.
And then let's look at look at twelve.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
You have granted me life insteadfast love, and your care
has preserved my spirit. Now, this is a little reflective
here for Joe because he's trying to work all this out,
and what he's saying here is you took care of me.
You gave me life. You have preserved me. And let
(22:51):
me tell you the question that isn't listed here, but
it's out there in the silence after he says this,
So what happened? Why did you stop taking care of me?
Why have you abandoned me? Are you gone?
Speaker 2 (23:06):
One time? You took care of me. You were always
provided for me, You gave me life, You've been there
for me. When did that stop? Have you ever felt
that way? Now? We understand that we know who God is.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
What I'm talking about sometimes, even when you know who
he is and you know the truth, just like you've
heard me say in here before, if I could just
give you some advice on difficulty, and I say it
every time when you're dealing with difficulty with someone who
is a member of the church, someone who is also redeemed,
it's always comforting to remind that person in this moment
(23:44):
where you're a little bit confused, you're a little bit rattled,
you're a little bit shook, cling to the promises of God,
cling to what you know, and just keep uttering those
things out, keep saying them out loud. Don't forget who
he is. Because what we can't do is every time
we get in difficulties, suddenly we just forget every time
God was there for us, and you know, and just
(24:05):
remember if.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
You you have always been there for me. See what
Job should have been doing.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Here is not saying what happened, but be reminded you
must be in this. You are going to take care
of me. You'll see me through this. Now he's not
there yet. What he wants to know is where did
you go? When did you stop taking care of me?
When did you start mistreating me? But what good theology
would be is I know you're going to see me
through this. I know this is not how it will
always be. You're going to teach me something in this.
(24:32):
You're going to be glorified in this. You haven't left me.
As a matter of fact, I feel closer to you
right now than I've ever been because I can't breathe
without you.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
But that's not where job is yet. But that's where
we got to be.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Okay, thirteen, Yet these things you hid in your heart,
I know that this was your purpose. Well, well, at
least he's acknowledging right now you're doing something.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
I just wish you'd let me in on it.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Anybody ever said that, Hey man, the quicker you can
show me what the purpose of this is that I
sure would love it.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I know we're going to get there, but today would
be great. Okay.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
So he seems to know that God is in this
because why he knows who God is. You're doing something,
and I know that this was your purpose because you
know what job is realizing. And I know sometimes this
is hard, and we've talked about this before, but it's important.
He's saying, I know that this was your purpose. I
(25:38):
know you're in it. Why because I know you could
have stopped it.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
We don't live our lives going well. I hope God
can stop this. I mean everything that we experience God
could stop.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Now.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Some of it we bring on ourselves, no question, some
of its repercussion for bad behavior. But uh but again
even that is allowed, and and that may be like
we do with our kids sometimes.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
And I think it's one of the hardest things you
do as a parent. Do You'll agree with me.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
One of the hardest things you do as a parent
is to say I'm gonna let you suffer the consequences.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
For your bad decisions. That's a hard one. You want so.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Bad to jump in there and keep it from happening,
But sometimes they just won't learn until they've had the
win knocked out of them, and then they go, oh, wow,
everything you told me what happened has happened now. And
of course that's not the time to do and I
told you so, it's the time to say, learn from it.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Okay. So the even though I've admit I've done and
I told you so before. Uh, but the I had
I had one of my one of mine one time.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
I won't get into details because they they've learned from
it and there's no need for that. But I had,
I had told one of mine that if you, if you,
if you do this, and you don't do.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
This, this is what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
And they listen, and they were adult, so you know,
they were paying their own bills, and uh, I said,
I'm just telling you how this is gonna go. And
they didn't listen, and and they did it. Uh, And
it went just like I said it would. And and
they they suffered some consequences for that.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
And this particular child of mine set me down in
despair about the consequences of the decision that I said.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Not to make. And uh.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
And when the child asked me what I was gonna
do to get them out of it.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
I said, I I'm not gonna do anything. And the
child looked at me and said what. He said, Well,
you know I've got this problem. I said, well, you
sure do. And he says, he says, he says, and
I got to do this, this or that. Mm hmm.
He said that that's that's not good. I said, no,
it's not. Sounds terrible and uh.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
He said this this is a rough situation, man, I said,
sounds like it. And he said, well, what am I
gonna do? I said, figure it out? Do you think
I wanna step in and take care of this? No, way,
you take care of it. And once you go through
what you got to do to work this out, I
bet you'll learn not to do it again. He said,
(28:15):
So you're not gonna you're not gonna handle this. I said,
I am not, because I told you better and you
didn't listen. So some of the consequences for what you did,
and and and and involved one thing he was gonna
have to pay for. And he said, well, where am
I gonna find that money? I said, I don't know,
but not for me.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
And I said, I guess you'll just run the rest
of your life, or you'll find that money, you know,
I mean, but uh, and eventually he worked it out.
I don't even know how he worked it out, by
the way. I never found out. He just did. Uh.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So so that and and he doesn't seem to do
that anymore, uh like like we all do. But uh
but not perfect. But he's certainly not doing that anymore,
all right, So verse fourteen. And that was a very
hard situation. I mean, we're laughing. I wanted so bad
just to make it go away, I really did, but
I knew that wasn't the thing to do. I loved
(29:07):
him too much to do that. So if I sin,
you watch me and do not equip me, equip me
of my iniquity.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Okay, So he's even understanding that. He he says, you
watch me. But here's where he's been a little bit
of a smart eleic.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
This is not like surveillance from God that he's embracing
and celebrating. He's a little annoyed by it. It's almost
like an undesired surveillance. And he says, so you watch me.
This is almost like you since you know everything and
you know everything I do, could you make the case
that I've committed some sin, some unrepentant sin, some issue
(29:48):
between you and me. You watch everything I do. You
know what I do? You know I haven't done anything.
You're not unaware of my innocence. He's back to that again,
because you you, you're surveillance. It's just twenty four seven.
Remember we made We've made that joke before, haven't we
All of us talk about how God is all knowing
and is omniscient and omnipresent and omnipotent, and then we
(30:10):
live our lives like he has no idea what we're doing,
you know, like we can go sneak away somewhere well
even quote.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
The verse, nowhere can I hide from you?
Speaker 1 (30:18):
And then you can do something stupid going Maybe God
didn't know about this, you know, maybe he didn't know
what I'm watching.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
He don't know what I'm doing. And then we'll sing
songs that says what you know everything, I'll do it, uh,
and then live like we don't believe it. I guess.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Or maybe sometimes sin is just so intriguing that we
love it more than we do him. So he wants
to know what is the condition that has brought this fifteen?
Speaker 2 (30:43):
If I'm guilty. Woe to me.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
If I am in the right, I cannot lift up
my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look
on my affliction. If I'm guilty, then I deserve it.
At this point, it comes a little bit of a
poor por pillow for me. At this point, even if
I'm right, you have you have shamed me so much
(31:12):
I can't even lift my head. I'm just you know what,
I'm just gonna lay low at this point, my innocence.
You've shamed me so much, and I have been so
much disgrace that even proving my innocence at this point
is not gonna not gonna take away the shame that
I feel. So even if you eventually will even tell
(31:34):
me you agree that I'm right, you've done so much
damage and I am so embarrassed, and I have had
so much disgrace that I won't even lift my head
because of how repulsive I am right now my affliction.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
You've done too much damage. So I'm just gonna lay low.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Sixteen And where my head lifted up, you would hunt
me like a lion, and again work wonders against me.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Well, I feel trapped, is what he's saying.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Even if I could overcome the shame and disgrace and
lift my head.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
You would just deviour me like a lion hunting its prey.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
What good is it gonna do If I raise my
head back up again, you just gonna knock me back
down seventeen. You renew your witness against me and increase
your vexation toward me. You bring fresh troops against me.
You know, we're saying to God right here, I mean,
the way this thing is going, it just seems like
(32:41):
you keep getting more and more angry. You increase the attack.
I make it through a day, and you just make
the next day even harder. It uses an analogy of war.
You know, if you looked up and you're like, all right.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
We beat back that that bunch.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Here comes another troop, and here comes another troop, and
here it could keep increasing.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Your You're this war you're waging against me.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
I get through a day, I think I've made it,
maybe tomorrow will be a better day. And then all
of a sudden, I realize that when I when I
face this day, my goodness, you've even got more troops
against me. It just keeps getting worse. There's no defeating
you because of how overwhelmingly powerful you are. Give me
a break. I have a friend that is that could
(33:28):
could pass any day the horrors of one of these
horrible diseases.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
And I was talking with.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
One of our friends yesterday who has seen him since
I have, and of course I'm asking how he's doing.
And he said, you know, he says, he's kind to
the point now he's made his peace with his family.
They've all reassured him they're fine. He's certainly redeemed and
is gonna hear a well done when God decides that
the body is done. And he said, and he can't
(33:59):
really communicate now, but this was in the last few
days that he could sort of communicate, and he said,
to my friend, he said, my redemption. I felt like
that God was knocking on the door of my heart,
waiting on me to open to him, he said.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
And now as I begin to yearn for death, I'm
ready to die. I'm ready for this to be over.
I feel like I'm knocking on his door and he's
not answering it yet. I want in, I want into Heaven,
I want into his presence, and I'm just knocking at
the door saying I'm ready to go. And he goes,
every day I.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Wake up, he said, I'm getting to the point where
waking up is not something that I celebrate when I
wake up.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Now I'm disappointed. I'm ready to die.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
And so so you see where he's saying. Even making
it through a day now just means there's more trouble
waiting on me. And that's the way that Job is feeling.
And then he says, now here comes this is kind
of be like Chapter three again. Job is going to
start wishing he was dead again. And that kind of
(35:08):
ties into what I was just talking about eighteen Why
did you bring me out from the womb?
Speaker 2 (35:14):
What that I had died before any I had seen me.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
I mean, if I knew this how my life was
gonna be and I was gonna get to this point,
I wish you just never brought me out of the womb.
I don't know why would you bring me out of
the womb for this? Now, I want you to think
about how little Job knows. Right here, it is those
of you that listen and watch this stuff at different times.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
We're doing this Bible study.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
In the year twenty twenty five, in the month of April,
it is twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
And we are studying and learning from Job and he
can't figure out why he was ever even born.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
And we're learning who God isfficulty through his story.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
But he didn't know why I was ever born.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Let's see, don't ever get the attitude because life's hard
that you can't figure out that makes God out to
be so simple. He's so much more complex than that
some of us. He brings into this world and he
takes us through difficulty, not because our life should have
never been lived, but He had this to live for
(36:27):
the very purpose of the difficulty we're going through for
the good that it has brought us as an individual,
it always does, but the good for other people, the impact.
Think about the impact of people's lives. I remember Elizabeth
Elliott talking about her husband Jim, who died young, you know,
(36:47):
being killed by the very people he was trying to
reach for Christ and then of course the ministry that
launched from that. And Elizabeth Elliot said that she knew
even when she married Jim, he just never had the
attitude that he wanted to have a long life. He
didn't think he really would. She said, he wanted to
have an impactful life. He wasn't looking for a life
(37:07):
that didn't have difficulty. He was looking for a life
that had impact, period, and he felt that that's why
he was born. So the length of his life was
really no concern to him. What he was more concerned
with is what was the impact.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Of his life.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
And if he was doing what God called him to do,
then whatever God decided on the number of his days
was good with him as long as he could say
I was obedient to you. And sometimes some of us
have to get speared so that the Gospel will go
on from our getting speared. And we see this all
over scripture. Now, you don't want to be the person
(37:41):
to get spared, None of us want to sign up
for that. But the fact of the matter is some
of us get speared for the benefit of the advancement
of the Gospel. And if we're right with God, then
who cares how long our life is? You know, sometimes
I think to myself, think of the things that you
would not have had to gone through if God had
taken you home a little sooner. If you're redeemed. Now,
(38:03):
if you're not redeemed yet, you keep going. You want
more time on the clock. But if you're redeemed. You
say I'm here, and you get to where the apostle
Paul got, which is the secret to life, to live
as Christ to Die's game. So but here's Job saying
I wish I had not been allowed to live if
this was part of it. Now, once again, what is
Job forgetting? He has no idea about the impact of
(38:25):
his life. But what else is he forgetting? How good
God's been to it?
Speaker 2 (38:28):
His life been.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Pretty good up to this point. He's forgetting all that.
So you wouldn't have got any of that either if
you were never born. You know, we always say, well,
if I hadn't been born, I would avoided the difficulty,
but you would have missed the blessing. My goodness, I
think I'm writing a Garth Brook song. So verse nineteen.
(38:50):
And whereas though I had not been carried from the
womb to the grave, here is just saying I wish
I had gone straight from.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
The womb to the tomb.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
If I could have just been born for a few
minutes and died, that had been great too. Are still
born or something like that? From the womb to the tomb?
Verse twenty are not my day's few? Then cease and
leave me alone that I might find a little cheer.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Now here, Lucifer's got to be getting excited. I mean,
he's getting excited now. He wish God would just leave
him along. He thinks that if God would leave him along,
he would be happier because he knows God's doing this
to him. That's what I was hoping is that he
would realize ultimately God's doing this to him and I
want him to turn on God. I want him to
(39:38):
renounce God. I want him to reject God. And he's
moving in right now. He's telling God to leave him alone.
He said, I don't have a whole lot of life left,
that's obvious. I could die any day. Leave me alone
so I can find some joy.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Wow. You know what he's saying to God, Hey, give
me a break. Ease up.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
You ever been there? Lord, Come on now, just ease
up on me, Give me a break. I don't know
how much more of this I can take now. He
at this point, though, you know how you look for,
God knows what he's doing, and he's always so many
steps ahead of the adversary.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
See. The adversary sees this.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
As he's about to renounce God because he wants God
to leave him alone, which means he realizes that God's.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Doing this to him.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
You know what, God saying, He's finally realizing I'm doing
this to him. He's exactly where God wants him. Lucifer's
convinced is exactly where he wants it. God's always ahead,
he always counters see because God can't teach him this
new theology if he can't grasp that God's actually doing it.
(41:00):
And I see this a lot of times in suffering,
and it concerns me. There are some people, and I
have some friends of mine that we have to have
these discussions. They just don't like this truth. They want
to they they and this is their theology and it's flawed,
and you know, it doesn't take long to trip it
up a little bit. They want to say that everything
(41:23):
that bad, bad that happens in their life is of Satan,
and everything good that happens in their life is of God.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Now, first of all, it'scording how you define bad.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
But but that isn't true, and they don't like that.
You can get them almost to God allows things. They're
okay there, but if you go to God causes things,
they'll push back that don't anything to do with that.
Now to me, that that that that's a little bit
of a that bothers me a little bit because it's
(41:52):
it's limiting our faith a little bit. Are you saying
that if God causes some of this, you don't worship him,
you don't have faith in him, You don't trust him.
You can only trust him if Satan's doing it and
God's allowing it. Sometimes, well, first of all, does anybody
think Satan can do what they want, whatever he wants
to do to us? I take great comfort in that
(42:13):
he can't, so if God's allowing it. I mean when
you look at Paul, he says that, you know, I've
asked you three times to remove this thorn whatever it was,
from my flesh, which apparently was miserable, because he says
it's so bad that Lucifer has even sent he sent
a demon to me to harass me about this, and
it just won't ease up. And I've asked you to
(42:34):
remove it and you won't remove it. Meaning what, you're
the one that put it there because it keeps me
from being conceited. Paul knows why it's there, he still
doesn't like it. He wants it to go and be
better without it. But he knows that God has decided
that that particular amount of suffering in his life keeps
Paul from being full of himself. It keeps him conceited,
(42:57):
It keeps him from being conceded, It keeps him humble.
Why do we know this? Paul tells us that, which
means God has revealed that to it. Right, it's not
our speculation, we're told that, He says, what So he
celebrates it because he says, I know that when I'm weak,
then I'm actually strong. But I can't be weak if
you don't. If you took this flesh away from me,
(43:19):
then suddenly I would be strong again. And you know,
Paul goes through all kinds of difficulty and suffering. So
but but right here Job is beginning to realize that
all because what Job has done, he says, kind of
going through everything he knows about God, and he's saying,
you know what, you're doing this to me?
Speaker 2 (43:34):
And here's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
If you're the one doing this to me, cut it out,
give me a break, Ease up on me.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Let me have a little bit of cheer here in
my final days. Twenty one before I go, and I
shall not return to the land of darkness and deep shadow.
Now he's totally.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Wrong about this.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
He is saying, when I go from here, I'm never
going to be able to go back to the life
I had. It's over, you know.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Whatever happens to me now, whatever I had before is
this Now, I'll never returned to that.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
And he's wrong those of us that know how this ends.
He is going to return, even on earth, to something
beyond the life that he had before. And he says
that for me now, there'll never be anything like that again.
It's just going to be darkness and deep shadows. That's
all it's going to be. Twenty two, the land of gloom,
(44:33):
like thick darkness, like deep shadow, without any order, where
light is as thick as darkness. It's all darkness now.
Job says, it's to the grave that I go. And
this is the part where he is completely wrong. The
(44:54):
image that he's creating here in twenty two, brothers and
sisters who are out there, the image he's here is
where he is completely wrong. He is suggesting that all
of this that God's doing, as far as he can see,
is a bunch of meaningless chaos.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
There's no real meaning to all this.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
I can't seem to figure this out, and I guess
just the rest of my days, I'm just gonna be downtrodden.
I'm gonna be gloomy. I'm gonna be in this darkness.
I'm gonna have this deep shadow of me over me.
And here's where he messes up without any order. He's
completely wrong about that, because we know that we serve
a God of order. God is completely in control of
(45:37):
this and nothing is happening to Job that he isn't
causing and allowing. But Job doesn't see it. He's getting there,
he's getting close. So I want you to, just as
we close this week, don't ever lose sight, don't get
to the point.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Don't let that.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
God is who he is, trouble you when it comes
to difficulty. Let it bring you peace. Now, look, we've
all been in a situation where we fully understand what's
going on. Let's go let's go to something not as important,
but let's go into those.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
That in your life.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
If you've ever been involved in anything where it might
be military, it might be sports, it might be whatever.
You might be training for a marathon and what you
know is that everything you're doing is very difficult and
it's not pleasant, and you even know it's for your
own good, but you still do get to the point
where you're like, I'm kind of ready for it to
be over. I understand this particular situation. I'm in this
(46:41):
particular training, say, for military boot camp. I know that
this is for my own good, and I even understand
it's for my own good. I'm just kind of ready
for boot camp to be over. It's miserable, I'm struggling.
I'm ready for this run to be over, even though
I know why I have to do it. I'm ready
for this workout to be over, even though I know
this why I'm having.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
To do it.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
I want this practice in this training to be over.
I want this refining and discipline to be over. I
know I'm benefiting from it, but I still want it
to be over. It's okay to not like the situation.
It's okay to wish it was over. But what's not
okay is to act like it has no meaning and
that it's a bunch of chaos.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
And God's abandon you.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Now, what we have to know is that what we're
going through is far our own good. It's okay to
wish it would end. It's okay to pray that it
would end, But I hope you can get to the point.
And I learned this from one of my dearest friends
when he was in Some of you already know this one,
(47:42):
but there's new people here. I mean, I'll never forget.
And this is the proper way to view suffering. I mean,
it is theologically sound. Is the dearest friend of mine
who was in a horrible situation, physically struggling, and I
went to pray for him, uh, and he had all
(48:05):
kinds of issues going on, and he asked me what
I was going to pray, and I told him I
was going to pray for God to heal him, to
release him, and to stop this. And he stopped me, saying,
they don't pray for me. Then I said, well, what
would you like for me to pray? I want you
to pray that he releases me. When he's done. I
(48:26):
don't want to do this again. Tell him not to
release me until I learn everything he's teaching me.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
Don't let me out too soon.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
That's that's hard to pray for someone that you that
there's a friend of yours or a family member.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
It's even hard to pray for yourself. I mean, can
any of us say this is horrible? Leave me here.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
Until I'm refined, leave me here till you're done, don't
let me miss anything.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
But you know that.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
But then there's kind of the logical say, because I
don't want to do it again.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
Okay, let's let this be a one time through. Okay.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
One of the hardest prayers you ever pray is Lord,
do whatever you have to do to get me where
you want me to be. Be careful with that because
he'll answer that one, especially if you're sincere. So remember
the benefits of it, even in the difficulty of it.
But it's God does understand that the difficulty of it's real.
(49:31):
That's the reason why we hear that he's near to
the broken hearted. He doesn't leave us when you say
I can't make it without you.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
He provides what you need. He'll always see you through it.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
But he's trying to take us beyond our ability to
do it without him. It's the reason why people misinterpreted
that misinterpret that garbage thing of God.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
Never give us more than we handle.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
If y'all want me to just run through that wall.
Let somebody say, that's not what Paul's talking about. Of course,
God gives us more than we can handle. He gives
us more than we can handle because that sometimes that's
the only way that we actually submit to Him, when
we stop depending on ourselves. Paul's talking about, don't make
excuses for sin. God stronger than any sin in your life.
(50:16):
There's no temptation that is too strong. He's not talking
about difficulty. And then, of course you get to the
other one. What I can do all things through Christ,
who strengthens me. That is not this is how make
an a on the test or how I win the
ball game. Paul is saying, this is so difficult when
I'm in right now. You've got me to the point
(50:37):
in this Philippi in jail and the misery of where
I'm at right now, that it's only your strength that's
going to see me through it. It's a verse about suffering.
I can endure anything because of Christ. Not I can
accomplish anything because of Christ. I can endure anything because
of Christ. Joe's not there yet, but God's gonna get
(50:59):
him there. Let's pray Lord, thank you thank you for today,
thank you for the truth. Thank you for loving us
enough to discipline us. We don't go looking for trouble.
That's not whi well, we know that trouble always is
around every corner. We live in a falling creation. We're
(51:20):
a sinful people. And you love us enough to refine
us and to break our love of this fallen.
Speaker 2 (51:27):
Dying place.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
And you love us enough to do whatever it'll take
to break that love and make us less dependent on self,
make sin less desirable, and make us more dependent and
in love with the wonder that is you.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
We love you, Lord.
Speaker 1 (51:49):
Thank you for never leaving us and seeing us through
the trials and tribulations of this earth in our own sin.
At times, you have overcome the world. And that is
a piece that you promised to all who are redeemed.
May we cling to it in those moments where everything
seems to be wrong. In your name, we pray Amen.
Welcome into the Wednesday Bible Study. Excited to once again
open the Word of God. Today, we'll be continuing our
series through the book of Job. Today we turn to
Job chapter ten, Job Chapter ten if you want to
go ahead and get there. A couple of things to
kind of remind you of if it's your first time here.
My name's Rick Burgess, host of the Rick Burgess Show.
(00:22):
That's my day job. We do this Wednesday Bible Study
most every Wednesday. There's very few exceptions, and we thank
you for being with us. If you'd like to go
back and pick up archives of maybe Bible studies in
this series or any series that you missed, that's simple.
Just go to themanchurch dot com. You'll see a drop
down menu, use the media button and you can watch
(00:45):
the archives or you can listen to the archives audio only.
That is your choice. The manchurch dot Com is a
hub for men's ministry. We have all the resources you
would need to have a functioning, sustaining men's men industry,
reaching and discipling men. We provide speakers, we provide conferences.
We provide most importantly, curriculum and also devotionals for individual men.
(01:10):
Curriculum for small groups. We have five of those. Number
six comes out this fall. So if we can help
you in any way, contact us by just going to
Themanchurch dot com. A resource that will be out on
May the thirteenth. Men Don't Run in the Rain and
a book that I was just so excited to write
(01:30):
about growing up under the leadership of my father. And
if you have not read it, some of you went
to the conferences, you got an advanced copy. The hard
copies and the audiobook and the ebook come out on
May the thirteenth, and you can get it wherever you
get books, so I'll give you a heads up on
that too. Let's open up in a word of prayer
and let's start in Job chapter ten. Lord, thank you
(01:52):
for today. Lord be with us as we unpack your
Holy Word.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Today.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
May we learn this provocative book of the Bible, the
story of You and Job. There's so much to take
away from it, and Lord, it is just coming alive
again for those of us that may have read it
multiple times, just still seeing things that we missed the
last time, as you are now giving us nuggets from
(02:17):
this that maybe we could we could not handle earlier
in our sanctification. So help us to grow today, Lord
you'll be with us, give us the discernment of the
Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
In your name, we pray. Amen.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
All right, So let's go to Job chapter ten. So
last week Job has heard from Bill Dad, he's responded
to him and the friends, and today he's going to shift.
After complaining to his friends and to the readers to us,
Job now will turn to God. He is going to
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address his complaint to the one and only living God.
Now this is not exactly a prayer, but it's kind
of a combination of what he has said before when
he was lamenting. And also it's going to you know,
it's going to include another death wish from Job before
(03:10):
we are done, just like we saw in chapter three.
So we see in verse one of chapter ten he
does not wait long to discuss the point that he
loathes his life, and he's already said, as we said
last week. We concluded this in last week's study. For
those that may have missed it and have not gone
(03:32):
back to catch it yet, we actually ended verse one
because it sets us up for verse two onward. In
chapter ten, Job said, the last thing we said last week,
I loathe my life. I will give free utterance to
my complaint, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
So Job is already shifting from talking to his friends
(03:56):
and just almost picture him turning if God were somewhere else,
and he's addressed as friends, and now he's making attorney.
He says, oh, and by the way, I'm going to
address you talking to God, and I will be bitter
and I will complaint. So he's let God know, as
if God doesn't know what's about to happen. And in
his first complaint in verses two through seven, now, remember,
(04:20):
it's so crucial to remember this. And I'm learning so much,
as I hope you are too. We have to remember.
And I know, Rick, you've already told it. I'm gonna
tell you again. He has no idea about the conversation
of Lucifer, and God has no concept of that. And
apparently from listening to the friends and they keep saying, too, Job,
(04:41):
you know what we have always been taught to believe,
and that was the theology of retribution. If God's turned
on you, you've done something wrong. That's what we've always known.
They have no they don't have First Peter, they don't
have the apostle Paul, they don't have all these things
that we know.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
About God allowing suffering.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
And what Job is saying and verses two through seven,
something's changing, he said, because it appears to me that
I'm being condemned without any charges. You have no charge
to bring against me, and I'm being condemned anyway, and
I don't understand it. I don't know what you're doing.
And so he says in verse two, I will say
(05:22):
to God, do not condemn me. Let me know why
you contend against me. What is going on? I don't
see it.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Now.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Remember we're never saying that just because Job was blameless,
that that meant he was sinless, and he doesn't think
that either. But what blameless means is there's nothing wrong
with us. Even the things I've done, I've asked for forgiveness.
I can't think of anything I haven't repented of. I
haven't done something that I refuse to repent of. What
(05:55):
is this about? What is your displeasure about? And he's
telling God, why don't you tell me? Have you ever
been there before where you kind of want God to
get on your timeline, which, by the way, he has
no part of. You talk about the one and only
living God. You think he cares about your timeline, I
have found him not to care much about that at all.
(06:18):
He's gonna do what he's gonna do when he's gonna
do it. And the sooner you realize that, really, the
better off you're gonna be. Just trust him, Just have faith.
I don't know what you're doing, don't know how long
you're gonna do it, but I trust you. I think
we need to kind of take the attitude even in
the New Covenant. And I love this this point when
Jesus finally decides to double down, He's built up about
(06:40):
over one hundred followers, and then he does they eat
my flesh, drink my blood. And he goes back down
to twelve and he looks to the twelve and he says, well,
y'all gonna go with them? And Peter tell us the
truth that we got no idea what you're talking about.
But where are we gonna go? I don't understand this,
but I don't know where else to go. I've seen
what you do, I know who you are. You have
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everything we need. We're not going anywhere else. And I
think that we should we should look look look to
God that way. Hey, I don't fully understand every time
you're doing something. I can't grasp everything about you, but
I don't know where else I'm gonna go. You're better
than anything else. Uh, And I trust you that you
know what you're doing. Well, this is Job saying, I
(07:21):
just wish you would clarify what is going on between
us and I'm being treated like I'm evil, But I
don't think I'm evil?
Speaker 2 (07:29):
So what am I missing? He doesn't know what we know?
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Remember that chapter three, And I see people that now
that we have access to God's explanation of these things,
they'll still out like they don't know when God's answered
a lot of.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
These questions on suffering. But Job is not. He doesn't
have access to what we have access to. So now
when we get to.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Three, you're gonna see this is going to kind of
begin a series of questions that seem to reflect how
Job felt and about how God was treating him. Now, remember,
I'm gonna keep pounding this because it really helps me
to understand what we're studying. He has no concept of
Romans eight twenty eight.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
You know, well we'll quote that in a minute.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
You know, this is God's got it's all gonna be
good for those of us who love him, and he's
working at all things for good.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
He didn't have Romans eight twenty eight. He doesn't know
any of that.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
So keep that in mind when you start thinking that
job should know. He doesn't know yet. He's gonna know,
but he doesn't know. Now, look at three.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Does it seem.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Good to you to oppress, to despise the work of
your hands, and favor the designs of the wicked boll?
Speaker 2 (08:44):
We go there, don't we?
Speaker 1 (08:45):
So? I how I remember this being a real bone
of contention, speaking of my dad in the book Coming
Out When when when his grandson died his earthly death,
this was a time when my dad had watched me,
his son, leave darkness and repent and be redeemed by God.
(09:07):
He'd watched me come out of all this darkness. He'd
watched God transform me. He'd seen the holiness of my
marriage to Sheery. He saw God blessing the ministry, blessing
the platform that he had given us, all the way
through the children that were young when Shearry and I
were married, that I already had, and then adding all
(09:28):
the way up to five children, and now to this baby.
And I remember one of the first problems that my
dad had was, what have y'all done for God to
do this to you? I don't understand this. And he
started talking about what look at all these evil people,
look at all these people that do all these horrible things.
Their kids are fine, And that was one of the
things Dad struggled with. And we worked it out and
(09:48):
we hashed it all out and he got to where
he understood it. But that's one of the places we go,
don't we Why do these people that seem to be
so horrible, Why does their life seem like you're not
bothering them? Now, He's gonna ultimately deal with him if
they don't repent. And sometimes we also think that everybody's
life is going wonderful. When we don't really know these
people and we're not in their life, it may not
(10:09):
be as wonderful as it looks to us. And I
can tell you in the times we're living in the
life you see on Instagram, that's not the real life.
I promise you, no one ever posts my kid got
arrested for drunk driving tonight.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Let me post that for you. Setting down to jail
with her arm around them we're so proud of our
drunk driver. Uh So you just don't see those things.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
So so anyway, uh so, what he is saying is
that you you are you are treating me like I
am evil. And this is the one that kind of
throws me a little bit, is that he is He
is saying to God, you know, do you look at
(10:50):
three Do.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
You seem to enjoy this? Do you enjoy treating me
this way? Is this? Is this fun for you?
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Which is an interesting statement because if you look at
the original language here that we translated here in the
English Standard version, which is what I use as my
study Bible, I just prefer it when it says doesn't
it seem good to you? If you took that and
translated literally, it is saying, are you smiling as you're
doing this? Why does this not bother you? The wicked
(11:23):
go unpunished? And I don't see this as a blessing
at all. I see this as oppression. See we would
now we should know that first Peter chapter one, six
and seven, and this you rejoice for a little while,
though now you're being grieved by various trials for a
(11:44):
little while. It may be necessary to test the genuineness
of your faith. This is an opportunity for you to
glorify Christ. I'm paraphrasing now, but that's basically what Peter
is saying. Pass the test, past the test. This is
a chance to Glorifa. What a platform this is. Hey,
let me tell you something. The difficulties I went through
and that what God saw me through. I got to
the point that I could see that as a blessing.
Job doesn't see that at all. I see this as oppression,
(12:08):
is what I see. He's confused and he's trying to
work it out at end time. If you know the ending,
it's gonna work out. So then we get to four.
Have your eyes? Have you eyes of flesh? Do you
see as man sees?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
You?
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Know what he's saying now? I thought you were above
what we do. I thought we were flawed and couldn't
really see these things. You're supposed to see everything perfectly.
You know what he's really saying here? Think about what
he's been through. Are you like these guys? Are you
just like my friends? I thought you were gonna be
me turning away from all this and see something different.
When I turn from them to you, I see the
same old garbage. I mean, it seems like that you're
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seeing this the way they see it.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Aren't you better than them?
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Can't you see my heart the thing they can't see?
Can't you see God? Your eyes know my heart?
Speaker 2 (12:56):
They don't. Have you ever taken solace?
Speaker 1 (13:00):
And the fact that people may become against you and
you're looking to be right with God, and you get
to say, I've had to do this recently. Lord, you
know my heart. Now, I know what a lot of
people are saying about me, but you know my heart.
Job is saying you know my heart, and you're still
doing this to me. You know that I'm innocent. They don't,
and you're acting just like them, like you have the
(13:21):
same eyes they have. You can't see my heart. And
so he's trying to make the case, which he's right,
that God knows he's innocent, and God does know he's innocent,
and he wants to know. Then if that's the case,
why is this happening? Look at chapter five, I mean
five verse five, Chapter ten. Are your days as the
(13:41):
days of man? Are your years as a man's years?
Human life is limited? Why are you, who is unlimited,
acting like you have the same limitations as a human being.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
You don't have the same limitation.
Speaker 1 (14:00):
Doubling down on what he said about the eyes, you're
acting as if you're just a man. You're acting flawed,
just like humans are. And these people think I've done
something wrong. But you're unlimited. You're all knowing. You know
the truth verse six, that you seek out my iniquity
(14:20):
and search for my sin, You Lord, God, search.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Out my faults, You search for my sin.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
If you look here at the original language, you probe
and can't you see since you're God, that I'm innocent.
There's a lot of people that could not know what
you know. But you're God, and you can get down
to the very marrow of my bones. You can see
everything about me. You know my every thought. You are
(14:53):
unlimited in your ability to investigate my innocence. So you
know that that I'm innocent verse seven, although you know
that I am not guilty. See there he tells you
exactly what the point he's trying to make in seven.
Although you know that I am not guilty and that
(15:13):
there is none to deliver out of your hand. You
know I'm innocent, but you're treating me like I'm guilty.
And here comes another foreshadowing. Have y all enjoyed the
foreshadowings as much as I have? How about this? There
is none to deliver out of your hand. Where's my redeemer?
(15:38):
Who can walk in front of you and make the
case that I'm innocent? Where's my redeemer?
Speaker 2 (15:48):
I don't have.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Anyone that can stand in front of you and declare
me innocent.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
But you know what we do, don't we? And his
name is Jesus. Amen.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have
destroyed me altogether. And I love this one. He's saying, Hey,
you're the one that made me. I'm your creation. So
would you make some evil person? You're the one that
made me? How can how can you now be coming
after the very man that you made?
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Right? This goes back to some things that we've seen.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
This sounds like the Garden of Eden to me, Right,
do you remember Adam's great statement, Well, you're the one
who made her, so ultimately this deception that just happened
with my wife and Satan, now she then pulled me
into it. The woman that you made now the one
I love about that? In the Garden of Eden, what
(16:49):
did Adam say when she was first.
Speaker 2 (16:50):
Brought to it.
Speaker 1 (16:51):
Wow, flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone. Here
is a great gift from God. He's glorifying God for
making woman. But then when woman got him in trouble,
he's like, well you don't want it made her? And
uh And so this sounds like job saying. He's not
saying you made somebody else. He's saying, you made me.
So if I am not, if I'm guilty, but then
(17:16):
you made me, I guess you made a mistake. So
he you know, he's remember I picture this just like
I did the last time that that job got all upset.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Now, eventually God's gonna have enough all this.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
We'll get there later. He's gonna have enough of all this.
He's listening right now and he's gonna.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Have enough of it.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
But what we see right now, I can just picture Lucifer, Oh,
Lucifer when he when Joe gets on these rants, I
imagine Lucifer getting the third that's with him saying, listen,
lean in, it's all hete here it comes. I'm about
to win. He is just about to reject God. He
is going to denounce God. He is so close, you
(17:57):
think is he gets madder and madder that Lucifer's like, come.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
On, come on, we are so close. We are so close.
Speaker 1 (18:04):
I finally made him miserable enough that I'm gonna prove
that God's wrong about him.
Speaker 2 (18:08):
And God just sitting there going and he's gonna come through.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
It shows you that we are not God, because I
don't know how much longer i'd listen to somebody treat
me this way. But Job doesn't understand, and God knows
that too. He knows that this is a time for
him and his friends to learn some new theology. So
he says, you know that I'm innocent. You treat me
like I'm guilty. You're the one that made me. Now
you're going to just destroy the very man that you made.
(18:34):
And then you get to the next verses that are
coming up, and he starts at in eight. As we
just talked about, He's gonna go now and continue eight
all the way through twelve. This same theme that he
has in eight, and that is, hey, you made me.
Look look at nine. Remember that you have made me
like clay, and you'll return me to the dust, back
(18:55):
to creation. Remember this, Remember this the analogy in Genesis
three nineteen. Dust you are, and dust you will return
do you remember that after the fall? Do we also
remember Jesus talking about the potter and the clay? And
how does the potter get the clay ready? He molds it,
(19:16):
he crushes it, he smashes it so he can make
it into something new. Now Job doesn't know these teachings,
but he sure is leaning on them. He realizes pretty quick,
you made me like clay. He doesn't realize he is
now veering into the potter in the clay. And then
he says, and will you return me to the dust,
(19:37):
meaning he knows he has the concept that mankind was
made from the dust and we will return to the dust.
So this is him reminding God how he made humans.
And you also said we're going to return to the dust.
I guess that's where you're taking me. Verse ten.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle
me like cheese? This one? These are rare words.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
You don't really see this analogy much in scripture at all,
but you see this is even in the time of Job,
whenever this was. They do seem to have some concept
of babies in the womb. They seem to know something
about it because he's using an analogy here When you
(20:22):
see this, it's really when he's using this term, you
did you not pour me out like milk and curdle
me like cheese When you look at the original language here,
it really is more of an image of the fluid
in the sack inside the female's womb where the baby
lives in the body forms and you know, and this
(20:44):
is also another example of scripture telling us that life
begins at conception, because he's talking about himself in this point,
he would still be in his mother's wombs, still in.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
That fluid sack.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Where the baby is growing, and he's saying, we're are
you not there with me when I was in because
I guess they saw from birth that there's a milky
substance that seems to flow from the woman. And he's
talking more about that, And then he's not literally talking
about milk and curdling. He's using this as an analogy
of whatever comes out of the woman. This fluid is
(21:18):
what it looks like, and we know the baby is
there and you were with me even then, so look
at look you'll see in ten and eleven.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Also this is talking.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
About the body forming, which reminds us of what Psalm
one thirty nine thirteen. Look you clothed me with skin
and flesh and knit me together verse eleven with bones
and sinews. So we know that this is right out
of Psalm one thirty nine. When you knit me together
in my mother's womb, you knew everything about me. You
(21:48):
knew the number of my days before I had ever
even lived one again, life, according to the one and
only living God, begins at conception. Science has now confirmed.
But we knew it all along because God said that
that's where life begins. And you see everything he's talking
about in ten and eleven, that's prenatal. Okay, So, and
(22:10):
he's talking about God knowing him. Then you're the one
that put me together. You're the one that created me.
You nipped me together. Everything about me the way I
was formed my body.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
You did that. You knew everything about me. You made me.
And then let's look at look at twelve.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
You have granted me life insteadfast love, and your care
has preserved my spirit. Now, this is a little reflective
here for Joe because he's trying to work all this out,
and what he's saying here is you took care of me.
You gave me life. You have preserved me. And let
(22:51):
me tell you the question that isn't listed here, but
it's out there in the silence after he says this,
So what happened? Why did you stop taking care of me?
Why have you abandoned me? Are you gone?
Speaker 2 (23:06):
One time? You took care of me. You were always
provided for me, You gave me life, You've been there
for me. When did that stop? Have you ever felt
that way? Now? We understand that we know who God is.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
What I'm talking about sometimes, even when you know who
he is and you know the truth, just like you've
heard me say in here before, if I could just
give you some advice on difficulty, and I say it
every time when you're dealing with difficulty with someone who
is a member of the church, someone who is also redeemed,
it's always comforting to remind that person in this moment
(23:44):
where you're a little bit confused, you're a little bit rattled,
you're a little bit shook, cling to the promises of God,
cling to what you know, and just keep uttering those
things out, keep saying them out loud. Don't forget who
he is. Because what we can't do is every time
we get in difficulties, suddenly we just forget every time
God was there for us, and you know, and just
(24:05):
remember if.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
You you have always been there for me. See what
Job should have been doing.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Here is not saying what happened, but be reminded you
must be in this. You are going to take care
of me. You'll see me through this. Now he's not
there yet. What he wants to know is where did
you go? When did you stop taking care of me?
When did you start mistreating me? But what good theology
would be is I know you're going to see me
through this. I know this is not how it will
always be. You're going to teach me something in this.
(24:32):
You're going to be glorified in this. You haven't left me.
As a matter of fact, I feel closer to you
right now than I've ever been because I can't breathe
without you.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
But that's not where job is yet. But that's where
we got to be.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Okay, thirteen, Yet these things you hid in your heart,
I know that this was your purpose. Well, well, at
least he's acknowledging right now you're doing something.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
I just wish you'd let me in on it.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
Anybody ever said that, Hey man, the quicker you can
show me what the purpose of this is that I
sure would love it.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
I know we're going to get there, but today would
be great. Okay.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
So he seems to know that God is in this
because why he knows who God is. You're doing something,
and I know that this was your purpose because you
know what job is realizing. And I know sometimes this
is hard, and we've talked about this before, but it's important.
He's saying, I know that this was your purpose. I
(25:38):
know you're in it. Why because I know you could
have stopped it.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Right.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
We don't live our lives going well. I hope God
can stop this. I mean everything that we experience God
could stop.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Now.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Some of it we bring on ourselves, no question, some
of its repercussion for bad behavior. But uh but again
even that is allowed, and and that may be like
we do with our kids sometimes.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
And I think it's one of the hardest things you
do as a parent. Do You'll agree with me.
Speaker 1 (26:09):
One of the hardest things you do as a parent
is to say I'm gonna let you suffer the consequences.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
For your bad decisions. That's a hard one. You want so.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
Bad to jump in there and keep it from happening,
But sometimes they just won't learn until they've had the
win knocked out of them, and then they go, oh, wow,
everything you told me what happened has happened now. And
of course that's not the time to do and I
told you so, it's the time to say, learn from it.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Okay. So the even though I've admit I've done and
I told you so before. Uh, but the I had
I had one of my one of mine one time.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
I won't get into details because they they've learned from
it and there's no need for that. But I had,
I had told one of mine that if you, if you,
if you do this, and you don't do.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
This, this is what's gonna happen.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
And they listen, and they were adult, so you know,
they were paying their own bills, and uh, I said,
I'm just telling you how this is gonna go. And
they didn't listen, and and they did it. Uh, And
it went just like I said it would. And and
they they suffered some consequences for that.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
And this particular child of mine set me down in
despair about the consequences of the decision that I said.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
Not to make. And uh.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
And when the child asked me what I was gonna
do to get them out of it.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
I said, I I'm not gonna do anything. And the
child looked at me and said what. He said, Well,
you know I've got this problem. I said, well, you
sure do. And he says, he says, he says, and
I got to do this, this or that. Mm hmm.
He said that that's that's not good. I said, no,
it's not. Sounds terrible and uh.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
He said this this is a rough situation, man, I said,
sounds like it. And he said, well, what am I
gonna do? I said, figure it out? Do you think
I wanna step in and take care of this? No, way,
you take care of it. And once you go through
what you got to do to work this out, I
bet you'll learn not to do it again. He said,
(28:15):
So you're not gonna you're not gonna handle this. I said,
I am not, because I told you better and you
didn't listen. So some of the consequences for what you did,
and and and and involved one thing he was gonna
have to pay for. And he said, well, where am
I gonna find that money? I said, I don't know,
but not for me.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
And I said, I guess you'll just run the rest
of your life, or you'll find that money, you know,
I mean, but uh, and eventually he worked it out.
I don't even know how he worked it out, by
the way. I never found out. He just did. Uh.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
So so that and and he doesn't seem to do
that anymore, uh like like we all do. But uh
but not perfect. But he's certainly not doing that anymore,
all right, So verse fourteen. And that was a very
hard situation. I mean, we're laughing. I wanted so bad
just to make it go away, I really did, but
I knew that wasn't the thing to do. I loved
(29:07):
him too much to do that. So if I sin,
you watch me and do not equip me, equip me
of my iniquity.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Okay, So he's even understanding that. He he says, you
watch me. But here's where he's been a little bit
of a smart eleic.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
This is not like surveillance from God that he's embracing
and celebrating. He's a little annoyed by it. It's almost
like an undesired surveillance. And he says, so you watch me.
This is almost like you since you know everything and
you know everything I do, could you make the case
that I've committed some sin, some unrepentant sin, some issue
(29:48):
between you and me. You watch everything I do. You
know what I do? You know I haven't done anything.
You're not unaware of my innocence. He's back to that again,
because you you, you're surveillance. It's just twenty four seven.
Remember we made We've made that joke before, haven't we
All of us talk about how God is all knowing
and is omniscient and omnipresent and omnipotent, and then we
(30:10):
live our lives like he has no idea what we're doing,
you know, like we can go sneak away somewhere well
even quote.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
The verse, nowhere can I hide from you?
Speaker 1 (30:18):
And then you can do something stupid going Maybe God
didn't know about this, you know, maybe he didn't know
what I'm watching.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
He don't know what I'm doing. And then we'll sing
songs that says what you know everything, I'll do it, uh,
and then live like we don't believe it. I guess.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Or maybe sometimes sin is just so intriguing that we
love it more than we do him. So he wants
to know what is the condition that has brought this fifteen?
Speaker 2 (30:43):
If I'm guilty. Woe to me.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
If I am in the right, I cannot lift up
my head, for I am filled with disgrace and look
on my affliction. If I'm guilty, then I deserve it.
At this point, it comes a little bit of a
poor por pillow for me. At this point, even if
I'm right, you have you have shamed me so much
(31:12):
I can't even lift my head. I'm just you know what,
I'm just gonna lay low at this point, my innocence.
You've shamed me so much, and I have been so
much disgrace that even proving my innocence at this point
is not gonna not gonna take away the shame that
I feel. So even if you eventually will even tell
(31:34):
me you agree that I'm right, you've done so much
damage and I am so embarrassed, and I have had
so much disgrace that I won't even lift my head
because of how repulsive I am right now my affliction.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
You've done too much damage. So I'm just gonna lay low.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Sixteen And where my head lifted up, you would hunt
me like a lion, and again work wonders against me.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Well, I feel trapped, is what he's saying.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
Even if I could overcome the shame and disgrace and
lift my head.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
You would just deviour me like a lion hunting its prey.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
What good is it gonna do If I raise my
head back up again, you just gonna knock me back
down seventeen. You renew your witness against me and increase
your vexation toward me. You bring fresh troops against me.
You know, we're saying to God right here, I mean,
the way this thing is going, it just seems like
(32:41):
you keep getting more and more angry. You increase the attack.
I make it through a day, and you just make
the next day even harder. It uses an analogy of war.
You know, if you looked up and you're like, all right.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
We beat back that that bunch.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Here comes another troop, and here comes another troop, and
here it could keep increasing.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Your You're this war you're waging against me.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
I get through a day, I think I've made it,
maybe tomorrow will be a better day. And then all
of a sudden, I realize that when I when I
face this day, my goodness, you've even got more troops
against me. It just keeps getting worse. There's no defeating
you because of how overwhelmingly powerful you are. Give me
a break. I have a friend that is that could
(33:28):
could pass any day the horrors of one of these
horrible diseases.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
And I was talking with.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
One of our friends yesterday who has seen him since
I have, and of course I'm asking how he's doing.
And he said, you know, he says, he's kind to
the point now he's made his peace with his family.
They've all reassured him they're fine. He's certainly redeemed and
is gonna hear a well done when God decides that
the body is done. And he said, and he can't
(33:59):
really communicate now, but this was in the last few
days that he could sort of communicate, and he said,
to my friend, he said, my redemption. I felt like
that God was knocking on the door of my heart,
waiting on me to open to him, he said.
Speaker 2 (34:18):
And now as I begin to yearn for death, I'm
ready to die. I'm ready for this to be over.
I feel like I'm knocking on his door and he's
not answering it yet. I want in, I want into Heaven,
I want into his presence, and I'm just knocking at
the door saying I'm ready to go. And he goes,
every day I.
Speaker 1 (34:38):
Wake up, he said, I'm getting to the point where
waking up is not something that I celebrate when I
wake up.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
Now I'm disappointed. I'm ready to die.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
And so so you see where he's saying. Even making
it through a day now just means there's more trouble
waiting on me. And that's the way that Job is feeling.
And then he says, now here comes this is kind
of be like Chapter three again. Job is going to
start wishing he was dead again. And that kind of
(35:08):
ties into what I was just talking about eighteen Why
did you bring me out from the womb?
Speaker 2 (35:14):
What that I had died before any I had seen me.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
I mean, if I knew this how my life was
gonna be and I was gonna get to this point,
I wish you just never brought me out of the womb.
I don't know why would you bring me out of
the womb for this? Now, I want you to think
about how little Job knows. Right here, it is those
of you that listen and watch this stuff at different times.
Speaker 2 (35:36):
We're doing this Bible study.
Speaker 1 (35:39):
In the year twenty twenty five, in the month of April,
it is twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
And we are studying and learning from Job and he
can't figure out why he was ever even born.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
And we're learning who God isfficulty through his story.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
But he didn't know why I was ever born.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Let's see, don't ever get the attitude because life's hard
that you can't figure out that makes God out to
be so simple. He's so much more complex than that
some of us. He brings into this world and he
takes us through difficulty, not because our life should have
never been lived, but He had this to live for
(36:27):
the very purpose of the difficulty we're going through for
the good that it has brought us as an individual,
it always does, but the good for other people, the impact.
Think about the impact of people's lives. I remember Elizabeth
Elliott talking about her husband Jim, who died young, you know,
(36:47):
being killed by the very people he was trying to
reach for Christ and then of course the ministry that
launched from that. And Elizabeth Elliot said that she knew
even when she married Jim, he just never had the
attitude that he wanted to have a long life. He
didn't think he really would. She said, he wanted to
have an impactful life. He wasn't looking for a life
(37:07):
that didn't have difficulty. He was looking for a life
that had impact, period, and he felt that that's why
he was born. So the length of his life was
really no concern to him. What he was more concerned
with is what was the impact.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Of his life.
Speaker 1 (37:21):
And if he was doing what God called him to do,
then whatever God decided on the number of his days
was good with him as long as he could say
I was obedient to you. And sometimes some of us
have to get speared so that the Gospel will go
on from our getting speared. And we see this all
over scripture. Now, you don't want to be the person
(37:41):
to get spared, None of us want to sign up
for that. But the fact of the matter is some
of us get speared for the benefit of the advancement
of the Gospel. And if we're right with God, then
who cares how long our life is? You know, sometimes
I think to myself, think of the things that you
would not have had to gone through if God had
taken you home a little sooner. If you're redeemed. Now,
(38:03):
if you're not redeemed yet, you keep going. You want
more time on the clock. But if you're redeemed. You
say I'm here, and you get to where the apostle
Paul got, which is the secret to life, to live
as Christ to Die's game. So but here's Job saying
I wish I had not been allowed to live if
this was part of it. Now, once again, what is
Job forgetting? He has no idea about the impact of
(38:25):
his life. But what else is he forgetting? How good
God's been to it?
Speaker 2 (38:28):
His life been.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Pretty good up to this point. He's forgetting all that.
So you wouldn't have got any of that either if
you were never born. You know, we always say, well,
if I hadn't been born, I would avoided the difficulty,
but you would have missed the blessing. My goodness, I
think I'm writing a Garth Brook song. So verse nineteen.
(38:50):
And whereas though I had not been carried from the
womb to the grave, here is just saying I wish
I had gone straight from.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
The womb to the tomb.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
If I could have just been born for a few
minutes and died, that had been great too. Are still
born or something like that? From the womb to the tomb?
Verse twenty are not my day's few? Then cease and
leave me alone that I might find a little cheer.
Speaker 2 (39:17):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Now here, Lucifer's got to be getting excited. I mean,
he's getting excited now. He wish God would just leave
him along. He thinks that if God would leave him along,
he would be happier because he knows God's doing this
to him. That's what I was hoping is that he
would realize ultimately God's doing this to him and I
want him to turn on God. I want him to
(39:38):
renounce God. I want him to reject God. And he's
moving in right now. He's telling God to leave him alone.
He said, I don't have a whole lot of life left,
that's obvious. I could die any day. Leave me alone
so I can find some joy.
Speaker 2 (39:56):
Wow. You know what he's saying to God, Hey, give
me a break. Ease up.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
You ever been there? Lord, Come on now, just ease
up on me, Give me a break. I don't know
how much more of this I can take now. He
at this point, though, you know how you look for,
God knows what he's doing, and he's always so many
steps ahead of the adversary.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
See. The adversary sees this.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
As he's about to renounce God because he wants God
to leave him alone, which means he realizes that God's.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Doing this to him.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
You know what, God saying, He's finally realizing I'm doing
this to him. He's exactly where God wants him. Lucifer's
convinced is exactly where he wants it. God's always ahead,
he always counters see because God can't teach him this
new theology if he can't grasp that God's actually doing it.
(41:00):
And I see this a lot of times in suffering,
and it concerns me. There are some people, and I
have some friends of mine that we have to have
these discussions. They just don't like this truth. They want
to they they and this is their theology and it's flawed,
and you know, it doesn't take long to trip it
up a little bit. They want to say that everything
(41:23):
that bad, bad that happens in their life is of Satan,
and everything good that happens in their life is of God.
Speaker 2 (41:29):
Now, first of all, it'scording how you define bad.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
But but that isn't true, and they don't like that.
You can get them almost to God allows things. They're
okay there, but if you go to God causes things,
they'll push back that don't anything to do with that.
Now to me, that that that that's a little bit
of a that bothers me a little bit because it's
(41:52):
it's limiting our faith a little bit. Are you saying
that if God causes some of this, you don't worship him,
you don't have faith in him, You don't trust him.
You can only trust him if Satan's doing it and
God's allowing it. Sometimes, well, first of all, does anybody
think Satan can do what they want, whatever he wants
to do to us? I take great comfort in that
(42:13):
he can't, so if God's allowing it. I mean when
you look at Paul, he says that, you know, I've
asked you three times to remove this thorn whatever it was,
from my flesh, which apparently was miserable, because he says
it's so bad that Lucifer has even sent he sent
a demon to me to harass me about this, and
it just won't ease up. And I've asked you to
(42:34):
remove it and you won't remove it. Meaning what, you're
the one that put it there because it keeps me
from being conceited. Paul knows why it's there, he still
doesn't like it. He wants it to go and be
better without it. But he knows that God has decided
that that particular amount of suffering in his life keeps
Paul from being full of himself. It keeps him conceited,
(42:57):
It keeps him from being conceded, It keeps him humble.
Why do we know this? Paul tells us that, which
means God has revealed that to it. Right, it's not
our speculation, we're told that, He says, what So he
celebrates it because he says, I know that when I'm weak,
then I'm actually strong. But I can't be weak if
you don't. If you took this flesh away from me,
(43:19):
then suddenly I would be strong again. And you know,
Paul goes through all kinds of difficulty and suffering. So
but but right here Job is beginning to realize that
all because what Job has done, he says, kind of
going through everything he knows about God, and he's saying,
you know what, you're doing this to me?
Speaker 2 (43:34):
And here's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (43:35):
If you're the one doing this to me, cut it out,
give me a break, Ease up on me.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
A little bit.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
Let me have a little bit of cheer here in
my final days. Twenty one before I go, and I
shall not return to the land of darkness and deep shadow.
Now he's totally.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
Wrong about this.
Speaker 1 (43:56):
He is saying, when I go from here, I'm never
going to be able to go back to the life
I had. It's over, you know.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
Whatever happens to me now, whatever I had before is
this Now, I'll never returned to that.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
And he's wrong those of us that know how this ends.
He is going to return, even on earth, to something
beyond the life that he had before. And he says
that for me now, there'll never be anything like that again.
It's just going to be darkness and deep shadows. That's
all it's going to be. Twenty two, the land of gloom,
(44:33):
like thick darkness, like deep shadow, without any order, where
light is as thick as darkness. It's all darkness now.
Job says, it's to the grave that I go. And
this is the part where he is completely wrong. The
(44:54):
image that he's creating here in twenty two, brothers and
sisters who are out there, the image he's here is
where he is completely wrong. He is suggesting that all
of this that God's doing, as far as he can see,
is a bunch of meaningless chaos.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
There's no real meaning to all this.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
I can't seem to figure this out, and I guess
just the rest of my days, I'm just gonna be downtrodden.
I'm gonna be gloomy. I'm gonna be in this darkness.
I'm gonna have this deep shadow of me over me.
And here's where he messes up without any order. He's
completely wrong about that, because we know that we serve
a God of order. God is completely in control of
(45:37):
this and nothing is happening to Job that he isn't
causing and allowing. But Job doesn't see it. He's getting there,
he's getting close. So I want you to, just as
we close this week, don't ever lose sight, don't get
to the point.
Speaker 2 (45:57):
Don't let that.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
God is who he is, trouble you when it comes
to difficulty. Let it bring you peace. Now, look, we've
all been in a situation where we fully understand what's
going on. Let's go let's go to something not as important,
but let's go into those.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
That in your life.
Speaker 1 (46:17):
If you've ever been involved in anything where it might
be military, it might be sports, it might be whatever.
You might be training for a marathon and what you
know is that everything you're doing is very difficult and
it's not pleasant, and you even know it's for your
own good, but you still do get to the point
where you're like, I'm kind of ready for it to
be over. I understand this particular situation. I'm in this
(46:41):
particular training, say, for military boot camp. I know that
this is for my own good, and I even understand
it's for my own good. I'm just kind of ready
for boot camp to be over. It's miserable, I'm struggling.
I'm ready for this run to be over, even though
I know why I have to do it. I'm ready
for this workout to be over, even though I know
this why I'm having.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
To do it.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
I want this practice in this training to be over.
I want this refining and discipline to be over. I
know I'm benefiting from it, but I still want it
to be over. It's okay to not like the situation.
It's okay to wish it was over. But what's not
okay is to act like it has no meaning and
that it's a bunch of chaos.
Speaker 2 (47:20):
And God's abandon you.
Speaker 1 (47:22):
Now, what we have to know is that what we're
going through is far our own good. It's okay to
wish it would end. It's okay to pray that it
would end, But I hope you can get to the point.
And I learned this from one of my dearest friends
when he was in Some of you already know this one,
(47:42):
but there's new people here. I mean, I'll never forget.
And this is the proper way to view suffering. I mean,
it is theologically sound. Is the dearest friend of mine
who was in a horrible situation, physically struggling, and I
went to pray for him, uh, and he had all
(48:05):
kinds of issues going on, and he asked me what
I was going to pray, and I told him I
was going to pray for God to heal him, to
release him, and to stop this. And he stopped me, saying,
they don't pray for me. Then I said, well, what
would you like for me to pray? I want you
to pray that he releases me. When he's done. I
(48:26):
don't want to do this again. Tell him not to
release me until I learn everything he's teaching me.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
Don't let me out too soon.
Speaker 1 (48:38):
That's that's hard to pray for someone that you that
there's a friend of yours or a family member.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
It's even hard to pray for yourself. I mean, can
any of us say this is horrible? Leave me here.
Speaker 1 (48:51):
Until I'm refined, leave me here till you're done, don't
let me miss anything.
Speaker 2 (48:57):
But you know that.
Speaker 1 (48:58):
But then there's kind of the logical say, because I
don't want to do it again.
Speaker 2 (49:03):
Okay, let's let this be a one time through. Okay.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
One of the hardest prayers you ever pray is Lord,
do whatever you have to do to get me where
you want me to be. Be careful with that because
he'll answer that one, especially if you're sincere. So remember
the benefits of it, even in the difficulty of it.
But it's God does understand that the difficulty of it's real.
(49:31):
That's the reason why we hear that he's near to
the broken hearted. He doesn't leave us when you say
I can't make it without you.
Speaker 2 (49:38):
He provides what you need. He'll always see you through it.
Speaker 1 (49:42):
But he's trying to take us beyond our ability to
do it without him. It's the reason why people misinterpreted
that misinterpret that garbage thing of God.
Speaker 2 (49:52):
Never give us more than we handle.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
If y'all want me to just run through that wall.
Let somebody say, that's not what Paul's talking about. Of course,
God gives us more than we can handle. He gives
us more than we can handle because that sometimes that's
the only way that we actually submit to Him, when
we stop depending on ourselves. Paul's talking about, don't make
excuses for sin. God stronger than any sin in your life.
(50:16):
There's no temptation that is too strong. He's not talking
about difficulty. And then, of course you get to the
other one. What I can do all things through Christ,
who strengthens me. That is not this is how make
an a on the test or how I win the
ball game. Paul is saying, this is so difficult when
I'm in right now. You've got me to the point
(50:37):
in this Philippi in jail and the misery of where
I'm at right now, that it's only your strength that's
going to see me through it. It's a verse about suffering.
I can endure anything because of Christ. Not I can
accomplish anything because of Christ. I can endure anything because
of Christ. Joe's not there yet, but God's gonna get
(50:59):
him there. Let's pray Lord, thank you thank you for today,
thank you for the truth. Thank you for loving us
enough to discipline us. We don't go looking for trouble.
That's not whi well, we know that trouble always is
around every corner. We live in a falling creation. We're
(51:20):
a sinful people. And you love us enough to refine
us and to break our love of this fallen.
Speaker 2 (51:27):
Dying place.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
And you love us enough to do whatever it'll take
to break that love and make us less dependent on self,
make sin less desirable, and make us more dependent and
in love with the wonder that is you.
Speaker 2 (51:48):
We love you, Lord.
Speaker 1 (51:49):
Thank you for never leaving us and seeing us through
the trials and tribulations of this earth in our own sin.
At times, you have overcome the world. And that is
a piece that you promised to all who are redeemed.
May we cling to it in those moments where everything
seems to be wrong. In your name, we pray Amen.
Host
Rick Burgess
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