Job Ch. 16 | Bible Study by Rick Burgess

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Wednesday Bible Study. Here we are continuing
our study of the Book of Job. If you are
joining us for the first time, we are in Job
sixteen today. If you want to go ahead and turn,
you may be going. My goodness, Job sixteen. I've missed
fifteen weeks of this. Yes you have. And if you'd

(00:20):
like to go back and pick up those archives, you
can go to the Manchurch dot Com. You'll see a
drop down menu you can watch those archives and you
can listen to them. And the good news is not
only this series is there, but multiple multiple serieses is
that series is that we have done throughout our ten
years of doing this Wednesday Bible Study. So thank you

(00:42):
for being here. Also, the manchurch dot Com is set
up if you have a men's ministry, desire to bring
a fully functioning, high challenge, high equipping a sustainable strategy
to your men's ministry. We have the resources that you need.
We're willing to get stand by you and help. We
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(01:04):
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We're ready, so come see us at Themanchurch dot com.
Do want to make one note. This is a little
bit dated, but it just cause there's some urgency. I

(01:24):
want you to know. We do have a brand new
resource out called Men Don't Run in the Rain. It's
a book that I wrote about my dad and it
came out in May, and if you want to sign
copy of that for Father's Day, we are doing this
Bible study on June the fourth, is that right today?
And so June the ninth will be the cutoff for that.

(01:47):
So if you're catching it within a few days of
us doing this and you want to sign copy, the
ninth is going to be the cutoff for us to
get those in the mail to you. So go to
the Manchurch dot com. You'll see our link right there,
and if you want to sign copy, I'd love to
do that for you and for the dads that are
on your list. So let's open up in a word
of prayer and let's jump right into job sixteen. Lord,

(02:07):
thank you for today. I pray Lord Jesus that should
be with us and you guide us today. Boy, we
see some foreshadowing to the new Covenant, How thankful we
are that we were able to live under the new Covenant.
And Lord, just watching Job grasping for you is he

(02:28):
doesn't know what we know. And Lord, today, may we
be reminded how wonderful it is that we do have
an advocate, we do have an intercessor, we do have
a redeemer in you and your holy name. We pray Amen. So, yeah,
you're going to see Job. So Eliphaz has you know,

(02:48):
I find it interesting. Job doesn't really let he's not
going to run through all three of them before he
comments again, You're starting to see the conversation between he
and his friends intensify, and Elafaz has come back, and
he's not near as nice this time. He's not near
as passive aggressive this time. He's listened to Job make
his case. It really hasn't changed anything. Now. One thing

(03:11):
that I got a very interesting email during the last week,
and this was something honestly I hadn't really thought about.
And the email or pointed out he said times must
have been much different in Job's time, and I thought, well, yeah,
but you know what is he talking about? He goes,
I don't think there's any anybody now that would be

(03:31):
sitting around for people, men or women, and people would
be allowed to talk without being interrupted like they do
in Job's time. He said, everybody's getting to say what
they want to say with no interruption, and then the
next person talks. And he said, is that do you
think that's the way it really went? Or do you
think it was just written that way for our benefit?
And I thought, well, what a great question, because I

(03:52):
can't imagine anybody I know letting me get through a
whole chapter. Can y'all before someone interrupted you or took
issue what you said? And he said, I guess to
speak their peace and the next person talks. What a concept.
But anyway, so that's a great question. I really don't
know the answer to it, but this is the way
it is here. So Job, chapter sixteen, verse one, that's

(04:13):
just telling us who's speaking now. So there's not a
lot to elaborate on that, but I do kind of
want you to know that that Job is going to
now start full blown criticism of his friends, and he's
going to make that clear. In verse two, he said,
I have heard many such things, meaning everything Ela Fast
just said and what his friends have said miserable comforters.

(04:37):
Are you all? That's pretty straightforward, he said, you as
my friends have taught me nothing. You are miserable comforters.
Now he's focusing on that word right here, And don't
forget why you think, well, he's just saying that because
that's obviously the way it feels. Yes, but you, if

(04:58):
you know, we've moved a long way from after two.
If you go back to chapter two, you'll see in
verse six they claim they're there to comfort and sympathize
with Joe. And he said, it really hadn't gone that way,
is what you said you were coming to do. It
really hasn't gone that way. Done, You've done none of

(05:19):
either of those. You haven't sympathized with me, you haven't
comforted me. And this is something I thought was interesting,
kind of to the emailer's point. One of the commentaries says,
most of the times in life and in scripture, you
will find that helpful helpful advice. I really had to

(05:40):
think about this in my own life, and I thought, yeah,
that's accurate. Helpful advice is usually brief and encouraging. What's
usually lengthy is the opposite, judgmental commentary. When somebody wants
to really run you down. They seem to go on
and on and on. If somebody wants to help you,

(06:02):
it's pretty brief and it's straight to the point, and
it's usually very encouraging. So have you ever felt that
way if somebody, If you've ever had an email now
in these days are something. The bad emails are always
longer than the encouraging emails. It's like everybody really wants
to let you know how upset they are with you

(06:24):
versus how how helpful they want to be to you.
And so I thought that was an interesting point. So
in verse three, Uh, he's going to give some of
Elafhas's words right back to him. Shall wendy words have
an end on what provokes you that you answer? You know,
Lafhas called him a big old bag of hot air. Uh.

(06:47):
And and really he's saying back to Lafas, is this
arguing ever going to end? I mean, we just seem
to be going back and forth. Nobody's changing the point
of view. Raise your hand. You've ever been on those conversations? Man,
this is going nowhere. I made my case, you make yours.
I make Have you ever hear this is the thing?
You know? I told you with my new commitment at
sixty to stop trying to reason with unreasonable people. I'm

(07:10):
not I'm not quite there yet. I'm still doing it
a little bit, but not I'm getting better. You you
refute a point that somebody made an accusation, and you
completely refute it. You give them everything that proves what
they accused you of was not accurate, and then they
just say it again, and you're like, okay, wow, I
mean so really, we're You're not looking for the answers.

(07:33):
You've already made your decision. No matter what I say
now is not going to change your point of view
on this. Even if I refute that some of the
facts you have right here you claim to be facts,
are not facts. You're wrong on that point, and I
can even prove that you were wrong. Uh. And that's
how about I had that happen, which is it's all me, guys,
my hands up. I confess it. I shouldn't have done it.

(07:55):
Not going to do it anymore. I saw that somebody
said something about me that I could easily correct, and
I've never seen this move before. A guy made an
accusation that I had done something I had not done,
and I said no, no, you have that wrong. It's
actually this, not that he deleted it off of the
off of the comments. And I'm like, so he doesn't

(08:17):
want anybody to see that I have actually said you
actually have that wrong. I've actually answered your question boom.
And I did it like three times, and because I thought, why,
he can't be really deleting that, and then I and
then and then I realized that he was just deleted
every time I would. He wanted to let the last
thing he said, which was wrong, stand and he didn't
want me to refute it publicly. So I thought, well,

(08:37):
I've done it. I've tried to reason with an unreasonable person.
I've just violated my own rule. So so that's so
I learned from that. Uh. And what's funny is when
you get to people that love you start coming in
and say, Rick, wipe your feet with this guy. You're
never gonna make this guy happy, you know it? And
I'm like, well, that's true. I mean it's a foregone
conclusion with him. But anyway, so so this is what
Job is saying here. We just seemed to be at

(09:00):
a stalemate. Okay, all you want to do is argue
with me. You don't want to comfort me, you don't
want to sympathize with me, You just want to argue.
I think we also need to apply that to our
lives as ambassadors for Christ. Are we truly trying to
point people to redemption? Are we truly trying to help people?

(09:21):
Or just win an argument. I had a little run
in my life when I first was redeemed that I
apparently I had declared myself a new apologist, and I
was going to go out and defend the faith everywhere,
you know, And I found myself arguing, trying to win
an argument more than I was truly trying to just
get the person's heart to be open to Jesus. And

(09:41):
I thought, I have this all wrong. If I win
this argument and this person still is lost, what have
I accomplished. So we can't have the attitude that we're
trying to win an argument. It needs to be that
we've been transformed by something that they really really would
be transformed by. Two. We're doing this like we would say,
you know, I found what you need, Not I'm gonna

(10:02):
prove that you're wrong about God. Okay, So, and I'm
not sure he needs me to defend him even though
he says that we are to stand with him and
proclaim him publicly. That is accurate. So for he said,
I could also speak as you do. If you were
in my place, I could join words together against you
and shake my head at you. If the roles were

(10:24):
just reversed, if we reversed everything right now you were me,
I was you, I could sit right where you're at,
and I could say the same thing about you. Now.
What he's doing is he's being sarcastic right here. But
you know, think about shaking his head. Now, this is
a gesture. If you see this in scripture, you'll see

(10:47):
this same phrase, and it's always used in a way
of spiteful pleasure. I love what I'm saying to you
right now. I'm even done trying to help you. Now.
I'm enjoying tearing you down. And he said, and if
I were you, I could sit there and wag my
finger at you two and shake my head and make
all these accusations against you, because and then you'd be

(11:09):
sitting here knowing what I know right now you don't.
If the roles were reversed, I could do exactly what
you're doing too, because I'd be just as uninformed, and
he's basically saying, you know you've left trying to help me.
You're really just enjoying running me down is what you're doing.
By the way, if you want some references on other places,
this phrase is used in Psalm twenty two. When you

(11:33):
remember when we say that there David is a type
of Christ. You can read that. And this is long
before remember the crucifixion ever happens, and you start reading
Psalm twenty two and you're like, these things happened to
Jesus on the cross, and Jesus references the Psalm on
the Cross, and so there you see that David says

(11:54):
that those that were against him, how spiteful they are,
and the way they're treating him. It's the same thing
that Job's using right here. Also in Psalm one nine,
verse twenty five lamentations, Jeremiah used this phrase about everybody
who was always on him about something two fifteen and
then interesting, Jesus brings us back up again, and we

(12:15):
see it in Matthew twenty seven, verse thirty nine. So
this phrase is used. And when I think about Psalm
twenty two and I think about Job, the way he's
being treated, you know all that has its own way
of foreshadowing towards the cross as well. He's almost in
the position of Jesus when everybody's spitting on him, mocking

(12:36):
him doing all those things. He didn't know that, but
he's using some of these same phrases. So verse five,
I could strengthen you with my mouth and the solace
of my lips, and that would assuage your pain. That
means to relieve your pain. English standard uses that word
instead of relieve. Some of you may have an NIV

(12:57):
and it probably says relieve your pain. But anyways, so
what what what he's saying, is this this quivering lips
he's using right now, the solace of my lips? Uh?
He said, I am completely sincere when I keep telling
you that I am innocent and and and it's like

(13:18):
you you're you're not noticing how my body is reacting.
You're you're not seeing that that that I am trying
my best to to make you understand. And if you
understood the place I'm in, If somehow I could make
you understand the place I am in, you would stop

(13:39):
the way you're treating me. I'd get some relief. If
y'all had any idea how how true everything I'm saying
is don't you see my lips quivering? Can't you see
how I'm just passionately defending myself and they're paying no
attention to it because they've gotten in their minds that
they're not open to considering that. They're not giving Joe

(14:00):
the benefit of the doubt, and he's confused by this.
Now they've explained and the other chapters they're not giving
them the benefit of the doubt because this is all
they know. You know, they really kind of find it
arrogant now, not trying to defend what they're doing, but
they're kind of finding it arrogant that Job thinks somehow
God's doing something different to him than they always believe

(14:22):
he did to everybody else. Even though I still say,
and you've heard me refer to this, I thought Job
really got on the right track when he tried to
point to the fact that they had pagans living all
around them that openly blasphem God, and he's not treating
them this way, so there's got to be something wrong
with what we believe. He went the other way, saying,
how come they're not being punished along with me? If
we're all a bunch of sinners and that's what's happened,

(14:44):
why aren't they going through this right now when we
know what they did, which I thought was a great point,
that didn't seem to help them very much. So next,
what we're going to see in the next few verses
six through fourteen, he's going to shift his complaint to
his friends, and he's going to shift it back to
his complaint going to God. And so this is he's

(15:08):
going to kind of start. He's not going to ask
this time. This is gonna be a little bit different
when he goes to complain to God, because I know
at times some of this gets a little repetitive. But
this time though, it's not really he's not even asking
God for an answer like he did in the other
chapters in the last few weeks. He's really just going
to recite his woes to God. I just want to

(15:29):
run down again, God, I want to review my troubles.
I want to review my woes, and I want you
to listen, because they are not listening. Six. If I speak,
my pain is not assuede And and if I forbear,

(15:51):
how much of it leaves me relief? Again? Is the
word there, and he says, even though he does it,
he goes to God and says, no matter whether I
speak of my pain or I remain silent about my pain,
it doesn't seem to change anything. So I've been quiet
about it. It didn't change. I've been loud about it.

(16:13):
It hadn't changed. It doesn't seem like there's really any
strategy I can pick that's going to relieve this pain
in any way. Verse seven. Surely now God has worn
me out, he has made me desolate, all my company,
and he's saying, now, this is important because he realized this.

(16:37):
This is again where he does understand this, and he's
been understanding this for a while. It is God that
is doing this to me, not Alafas, not my friends,
it's not my company. They are not doing this to me. Ultimately, God,
you are the one that's doing this to me. So
he completely gets that. Again, we hear no mention of Satan,

(17:00):
no mention of Satan. Like I've told you before, I've
noticed in the times that I live in, the first
thing that most people do of faith is they blame
Satan first. That's the first thing. They never consider that
God's doing it to him. Job's opposite. He's not considering
that anybody else is doing it to him other than God.

(17:20):
He just doesn't know why. And so this is a
little bit different. In verse eight, he says, if I
speak of my uh, I mean verses were at verse seven.
So he says, he says, now eight, I'm sorry. He
has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me,
and my leanness has risen up against me. It testifies

(17:44):
to my faith. You know what he says, There, he's
bound me. That's what that really means. There and Hebrew,
he's bound me. And then what he says, look at me,
Look at what he's done to me. Look at the
shape I'm in, right, he saying, Look how lean I am. Look,
Look how gaunt I am. Look Look how sickly I look.
I'm clearly being attacked. I mean, he he has overwhelming

(18:09):
This is all the evidence you need to see. You
can look at me and tell the despair that I'm in,
the pain that I'm in the ugliness of this ever
been there? Have you ever had anybody stop you in
the hall of a hospital, or stop you outside a
room and say, hey, now look, let me let me
go ahead. And prepare you when you see him, it's

(18:30):
gonna be shocking. Rajihne. You ever had that happen, Yeah,
let me give you. Let me just prep you for this.
I had that happen last week, and thank goodness, a
friend had prepped me, so I knew what to expect.
And I went in and you know, it was as
bad as he said, but I was ready. Uh. And
so a lot of times you don't even need any commentary.

(18:51):
You see the situation pretty loud and clear. And and
so he says that, he says, so it's so, it's
so obvious. Then he goes on with the tails. And
now listen, he has torn me in his wrath. I
underline wrath right there. So he knows that and hated me.
Now he's getting a little dramatic. Now he has gnashed
his teeth at me. My adversary sharpens his eyes against me.

(19:16):
So he's now now now he's speaking of God in
third person, and and and the and the and the
bottom line is God is against me. This. I know
he has hated me. That that's debatable, that's not the case.
And he is attacking me now that is true. He

(19:39):
has it all wrong, though, he hasn't quite figured out.
And here it comes. Boy, this is deep stuff, and
it's hard for all of us. Yes, God is attacking you,
but it's not because he hates you. That that's hard,
isn't it. So God's not mad at me, He's not.
But what what what is he doing? He's actually loving

(20:00):
you in this well, it don't feel like it. This
doesn't feel like love at all. But again, the writer
of Hebrews tells us that when we were disciplined by
our earthly fathers, we didn't anybody like that. I did not.
My dad was real good at it. Anybody else And
my dad was so good at it he didn't have

(20:21):
to do it much. But here's the thing about me, guys.
I mean, and I told my mother this just the
other day. I am living proof. There's some things that
about us that we just bad. I sit here with
no exaggeration. If my parents had not made life tough

(20:44):
on me through discipline and making stands against me out
of their love for me, I would either be dead
or in jail. There's no doubt about it. Look at
the trouble I got in anyway, you know, So imagine
if I'd been in some houses. Just let kids do

(21:05):
whatever they want. Do you ever have friends like that
that their parents didn't care what they did. Don't hang
out with them very long, because it's going to end bad.
I remember, you know, getting in trouble with I had
a friend like that, and it's a horrible thing. His
parents didn't care at all what he did. And you
could tell how sad it made him, you really could.
So we get in trouble with the law. And but

(21:26):
but I'm scared now because now I know my parents
are gonna find out. So now I start getting scared.
He's caared because he didn't care. But that's not good,
because now's the time for us to all start acting
really respectful, okay, because we need to minimize the trouble
we're all about to get in. So as soon as
the officer comes up and says, you do realize why
I'm here, and I'll change the language. And he basically said,

(21:48):
what because you're a blankety blank and I went, oh
my gosh, and you know, And so as soon as
he said that, now everything's just elevated. Now we're all
in much more trouble than we were going to be in.
I was in the mode because of my parents of
we're so sorry, we're out of line. Please be merciful
with us. Please don't call our parents, and please don't
put us in jail. But then I have this friend
that his parents don't care what he does. So what

(22:10):
happens He smarts off to authority and gets us in
worse trouble. So see, that's what I would have done
if I didn't have the parents that I had. And
so really we have to understand because the writer of
Hebrews tells us this discipline is for our own good.
It doesn't mean it's pleasant. But just because it's not
pleasant doesn't mean God is angry with us or hates us.

(22:34):
He's already shown us how much he loved us by
going to the cross. Now Job didn't know that yet,
but he does know God well enough. You would think
that he would be able to go I'm going to
take hate and anger off the table, but he doesn't
know enough, which is why God's doing this. Anyway, We're
going to get to the end of this, and Job's
gonna perfectly understand all of this. He's not there yet,

(22:58):
but it is not because God hates it. It's actually
the opposite and I think we struggle with that because
we're just so accustomed to bad means angry and good
means happy. You know, if everything's going well, God must
be okay with me. If things are going bad, he's
upset with me. That's not true. There's too many examples
of that not being true and so so. So that's

(23:20):
what he doesn't know. So that part he's right about
who's doing it, he's wrong about the motivation. Now let's
go to ten. He says, men have gaped at me
with their mouth, and they have struck me instantly on
the cheek, and they mask themselves together against me. Now
this again, this is more of that Psalm twenty two stuff. Okay,

(23:44):
So this is echoes here he's trying to say. See
if this sounds familiar. He's trying to say because of
the severity of this, here's what he's calling himself. And
I want you to think about this foreshadowing. You know
what he says, I'm a righteous sufferer. I'm righteous and
I'm still suffering. Who does that sound like? That's that

(24:08):
Psalm twenty two stuff again. So he said, I may
be suffering, but it's not because I'm unrighteous and That's
what I don't understand. Everybody's against me. My adversary is
against me. God has gnashed his teeth against me. Men
are against me. Men are striking me on the cheek.

(24:32):
They gather themselves against me, and then look at eleven.
God gives me up to the ungodly and cast me
into the hands of the wicked. Now, this is interesting
verse eleven. All of our brothers and the theologians, it
was fun to watch them argue about this. I had

(24:52):
a good time with it. I don't know where I
land on it. You can, I'll tell you the options.
One group of com sators say he's talking about he's
talking about the Sabians and the Kaldeans. He's saying because
they're the ones that took him all away from all
this stuff away from him. They're wicked people. God let
them do it, so that's who he's talking about. I

(25:12):
think that that one feels a little more likely to me.
But a lot of commentaries say he's talking about his friends.
He could be talking about them. He sees them as
wicked now and he's been sitting there listening to them
complaining about him. I think it's probably the first versus
the latter, but I want you to know there's a
disagreement on that. Exactly who is he talking about right
here that God has given him up to now, I

(25:35):
would say it's the first, because I don't do you
think he's going to call his friends ungodly? I don't
think so. Uh. And he says, and he casts me
into the hands of the wicked. I'm not sure he
would call him ungodly or wicked. He's called him bad friends.
Now we know the Kaldeans and the Sabians were ungodly
and wicked. So that's where I land, and so just

(25:56):
wanted you know, though, if you were to research this,
you might see the other I wouldn't put as much
credibility in that, just because it looks like it's a
little more common sense to be the people who had
the Pagans who actually came in and killed his kids
and took every weather storm, killed his kids, but they
took all his stuff, took all his livestock and all that.
So that may be. So going into twelve, I was

(26:18):
at ease. What is he remembering? I had it going on.
I had it just like I liked it. I was
at ease, and he who's he. God broke me apart.
He seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces.
He set me up as his target. Okay, I was

(26:42):
doing great. God destroyed my life. I mean, he's shooting
arrows at me. He's made me the target. His arrows
are coming right at me. I don't know why he's
marked me for this, but man, he's got me right
in the bullseye, true to a degree. But once again,
he never is mentioning that Satan has a hand in this. Allowed.

(27:09):
But really the person who's taking all this stuff and
bringing all these people on him is Satan. God's allowing it,
so ultimately it is God. But he's not even considering that.
And have you ever felt that way? Have you ever?
Have you ever had a poor, poor, pitiful me day
and you're like, man, everything was going great, and now
this does life ever seem that it's you ever heard

(27:35):
this phrase? I've uttered it. Man, it's always something to
always something, you know. You know, I'm healthy, healthy, healthy,
Now I'm sick. And you think to yourself, somehow I
thought I'd be healthy forever for the rest of my life.
I'd never be sick again, you know, And then you know,

(27:55):
and what is it always? You know, he said, there, hey,
good news, we got the money for that vacation. Hey,
it doesn't feel like their conditions because it's not cool,
you know, you know what I mean. And then then
all of a sudden you bring in the ac people
and where they say five grand you're gonna have to
have a new unit, and you're like, and there goes
the vacation money. Right. I thought I could get a

(28:15):
little bit of head. And it's always mhm. I tell you, hey,
tell you one thing. Everything's going great, you know. That's
just say you're riding along, what happens check engine? Like?
You know what that check engine line says minimum twelve
hundred minimum, you know. It's just like all the car
leaders said, now let's start at twelve hundred. Boy on

(28:36):
twelve hundred, you know. And and so so anyway, mac Brunson,
who's my current pastor, he told a story though about
how sometimes we just want to don't want to face
those things. About the woman that just put a piece
of tape over the check engine line. I just don't
want to see it, you know. And then the car
finally breaks down. Their husband's like, what's going on? He

(28:58):
pulls that tape back. My goodness has been take is broke.
But do you ever sometimes just check angelote comes on
in your life, You're just like, ah, man, I just
don't want to deal with that today, you know. And
so that's really what he's saying. He said, my life
was going great. But if we can get to the point,
and I'm not saying that we go looking for trouble.

(29:19):
I want to be sure, even with our new podcasts
strange encounters, please don't go looking for trouble enough, trouble
comes without you haven't looked for. Okay, we really should
be more shocked on when our lives going well than
when it's not going well. To me, that's the surprising
parts of life is that God would be gracious enough

(29:40):
for me to have so many good days. I'm the
one who deserves the bad days, you know. The fact
that He's given me good days is what's surprising, not
the fact that I have bad days, and the fact
that we're all redeemed. That's why Jesus said in John
sixteen thirty three, no matter what's happening, and you will
have tribulation in this world. Jesus said, it's always gonna

(30:01):
be something. But you always be at peace if you're redeemed,
because your biggest problem I've overcome, right amen. Yeah. So anyway,
so here he goes talking about how good his life was,
and then in thirteen he says, his archers surround me.
Now we're gonna get a little glory. Here he slashes

(30:21):
open my kidneys, does not spare. He pours out my
gall on to the ground. This is just him saying,
I mean he's hit me in the major organs. I mean,
these are the organs that are vital for survival. He
has hit me. He's taking my life, and the gall

(30:41):
here represents bitterness. He's given me nothing but bitterness. And
then fourteen he breaks me with breach upon breach. He
runs upon me like a warrior. This is really imagery
of him being burst open. It's ugly being burst open.
And you know what else he says, It is a

(31:02):
non stop brutal attack. He's not just standing across the field.
He's running at me like a warrior. He's stepping up
on my toes. Right, don't shoot you see the wide
of their eyes. I mean he's all over me. And
you know we used to My brother did this. I
know y'all may be shocked and that that when I played,

(31:24):
I was never a running back. I know that may
be shocking, but I always felt like they should have
given me the mail. I think I could have helped
offensively more than they allowed me. But but my brother
was a running back, and they used to do this thing.
Anybody remember the good old triple option? Anything better? Man?
I love the triple option? Right? My daddy thought, if
you didn't love the triple option, that just showed how
stupid you were. And but there was a thing called

(31:45):
a junction block, and so that that lead running back
would have to get that defensive end or the outside
linebacker or whoever showed up. And it was a junction block.
I mean you had to cut their legs out from
under them. And he said, the more people would mess
up on it as they throw the block too early.
And my brother said, we were always taught to do
the right junction block. You don't throw to your standing

(32:07):
on their cliqus. Just when you think you're about to
step on their feet, then you throw it. And when
you do that, it's indefensible. And I saw him up
in end after linebacker. These guys always thought they'd get
ready to put their hands down and push him down.
He'd wait till the last minute, but they just flip
up of the air, and we just keep on rolling.
And so this is what he's saying, is God's all
over me. I mean, he's stepping on my feet. He's

(32:29):
coming after me like a warrior. I can't get any relief.
This is a major attack. He's doing it. I don't
know why. And then he turns around in fifteen through seventeen,
and you always gonna do. He's gonna plead his innocence.
I don't deserve this. Then you know, we know this imagery.

(32:51):
A lot of you here and some of you out
there may be new to it. But anytime you see sackcloth,
which is here in fifteen, I have sewed sackcloth upon
my skin, and I have laid my strength in the dust,
dust and sackcloth, which we're gonna see again in job.
We're gonna see it again in the big moment. But

(33:12):
he's already saying that always represents repentance. Dust and ashes,
sackcloth always a sign of repentance. You saw this, Jacob
morning Joseph. In Genesis thirty seven, Jonah you know in
chapter three, verse eight, it's it's throughout scripture this always means.

(33:35):
So what he's saying now is interesting because this almost
sounds like I don't know. I don't know how many
guys in here are those of you out there are married?
But have you ever been in trouble and you can't
get your wife to tell you why? Okay, I'm sorry
for whatever idea? What is it? I mean, well, you

(33:58):
should know, and maybe if I knew, I wouldn't be
saying what I'm saying right now. It's obvious I don't
know what you should know. Well, maybe I should, but
I'm just telling you I don't. I'll tell you how
I could know. You could just tell me. And I
think that's what he's doing right now. I think he's
to the point right now he's going, well, apparently something's

(34:18):
up that I've done something. So hey, I repent. I'm sorry.
I want to be innocent with you, I want to
be right with you. I'll do the things I need
to do. Look you look at sixteen He goes on,
and he says, my face is red with weeping, and
on my eyelids is deep darkness. What an image here?

(34:40):
I cried out to you. I'm weeping, I'm moaning about
this situation. Dark circles are under my eyes. And hear
the language he's using signifies the shadow of death. And
and he's like, I'm done. I'm cried out. I got
nothing else I can cry. And look at my eye,
look at my face. And then he goes into seventeen

(35:04):
and here he comes. He says, I'm innocent, although there
is no violence in my hands. And look at this
right here. I'd underline this, and my prayer is pure. Wow,
that's what's got him confused. Remember we said blameless does

(35:25):
not mean sinless. He's like, my prayers are pure. I've
repented of everything I need to repent of. I don't
have anything unresolved with you. I stand before you, and
when I pray to you, my prayer is pure. You know?
Would we always talk about that, you remember Paul even
talking about this. Be sure you're not at odds with

(35:47):
anybody when you come to take the Lord's Supper? Is
there anything else that you have unresolved? And if you have,
you know, don't be bringing that gift up here to
the altar. You need to set it down and go
get resolved with you go resolve the problem. Then you
come back. Have you done everything that you can do
as far as you're concerned to resolve this? And you
know what, Job is saying, my prayers are pure, there's

(36:11):
no violence in my hands. I don't know what I've
done here. I am innocent, And then he goes into
his hope for vindication eighteen through twenty one. He wants
to be vindicated. O earth cover not my blood, and

(36:31):
let my cry find no resting place. I want vindication
before I die. Don't let me die with this being unresolved.
They have been there. Have you ever thought to yourself,
I hope that my life doesn't end before whatever gets resolved.
And he's saying, in this situation, I sure do hope

(36:55):
that before I die, you answer me on this and
we clear this up. I don't want to die at
odds with you, right? You know that that's that thing
that you always think about. I think a lot of
us if we were honest, we wouldn't. We wouldn't. It
wouldn't really bother us. There's two things you ever got

(37:18):
in that dilemma? Do you want to know that you're dying?
We all are. But I'm talk about I'm about it
straight up, Like would you like to know, Like if
somebody comes in and says, I tell you got it,
you got about two three weeks and you think, ooh,
that's daunting. Now I know I'm not gonna be around
here much longer. But then there's also, well, I tell
you what, though, I won't die with anything on the table.

(37:38):
I'm gonna get I'm gonna get everything straight. And then
there's the other thing that sometimes we say we prefer
I just hope I never see it coming. Well I
understand that, but boy, that means you better be right
with them every day. M hm. You know, think about
if I knew I was gonna die today, I probably
wouldn't be doing what ever you know, and and so

(38:04):
you so, and we're not in control of that, right
you know? You know it was it was It was
awful because I mean, I have these kind of friends
and we we even some of my closest friends, and
you ever you ever surprised how your friends see you?
And we were having discussion about and I mean, I
wouldn't suggest you do this, but we we just we're
we're we're different. I guess we actually discussed who we

(38:26):
thought was gonna die first, and and we actually had
a we had a we had a list, we had
a ranking on who everybody thought would go. I was
in the number two slot and uh. And so we
have one friend that you know, we we always give
a hard time about how he eats, and you know,
he's got all the hypertension and all this kind of stuff.
And we had him in the number one slot. And

(38:48):
then I said, how did I get number two? And
they said, oh, Burgess, you're gonna die when those violent deaths.
And I'm like, what are we talking about? And then
one of them says, oh, yeah, this was gonna happen.
Somebody said, you know what happened to Rick? He said
this will be go ooh you know And I said,
what is this and they said, no, you're not going
out easy, You're going out hard. And I thought, well,

(39:08):
thanks guys, that feels great, what a wonderful day. I'm
glad we had this discussion, you know. And but yeah,
so I don't know, I mean, that's not my call,
but there were many times where that looked like that's
how it would go. But I'd like to think differently now.
But anyway, so so he is saying that I do
not want to die before this is resolved. And you

(39:31):
know what he's said, I want the answer. I want
it before I'm covered him, before I'm dead nineteen even now, behold,
my witness is in heaven. Here we go, here comes
a foreshadowing, and he who testifies for me is on high.
Well well, well look at job getting into the New Covenant.

(39:53):
Here he says. You know, we saying, here's what I need.
I need a witness. I need an advocate. I need
to intercessor. But look at this, I need a friend.
But look at this not on Earth, because I've already
looked around that didn't appear to do me any good.

(40:13):
Now that's not as saying we don't need friends on Earth.
Of course we do. And you want advocates and you
want people that defend you. But what he's saying to
solve this problem, I need one in heaven. Here's what
he's saying. Chills. I'm getting chills. So again, back when
I first wrote this down, now I'm getting chills again.
You know what he's saying, I need a divine redeemer

(40:34):
whoa Yes he does, and yes we do. I need
somebody in heaven that goes before God and makes my case.
Isn't it wonderful that we do? I mean, you realize
that as we we don't know what's going on around us.
Right now, we're sitting here right now, and that nasty, defeated,

(41:00):
pathetic devil, the accuser is saying to the God who
created us, how are you tolerating him? How you let
him live another minute? And then the angels that went
with him were said, you didn't offer us redemption, You're
gonna offer him redemption. I mean, we had the big overthrow.

(41:20):
I got it, but you never gave us a shot
to get right with you. You're gonna give them the shot,
you know. That's one thing the demons hate, is there,
like he offered redemption to the humans and not to us.
Were doomed. There's no way out for us. But yet
he gives them a shot. And Jesus just stands there

(41:43):
interceding force. The Bible says, they're fully righteous in me. Now,
if you don't know Jesus, then the devil and the
demons are making a case against you. That's correct, and
God is going to pour his wrath out on you,
just like he will then, But those that have been
redeem Jesus keeps standing there in silence in that mess
and saying, they're with me, and Job is looking for that.

(42:08):
Oh if somebody could have just walked in and said, Job,
I have great news. But he didn't know that. And
his friends don't know it either. They're no help. But
he says he is appealing to God's holy trinity and
he doesn't even know it. I don't see any indication
that he really understands to try you and God. He

(42:29):
knows God, but he doesn't know any of this, but
he knows enough. There's something in him that is looking
for exactly what Jesus provided Amen twenty. Notice he said
he didn't use the word friend, but these words can

(42:49):
be used as friend. In nineteen. You can see the
difference here of the dichotomy. He says, I need a
friend in heaven because I ain't got no good friends.
Right here, my friend scorned me. My eye pours out
tears to God. I turn to my friends here, Lord,
I got nothing. I need a friend in heaven, and

(43:13):
I turned my eyes and I don't appeal to them anymore.
Who's he say? I appeal to you? Then? He goes
on and he's going to explain what an intercessor would
do for him. You know what an advocate would do
for him? Twenty one, that he the heavenly one, that

(43:35):
he would argue the case of a man with God.
Look at the term he uses right here in English
as a son of man? Wow does with his neighbor.
What was Jesus' favorite title for himself, son of man?
I one hund percent man. I want to em present God.

(43:57):
I've come to resolve this. I'm a son of God
at the same time a son of man because I
was born of a woman. And here is job saying,
if I could just have this person that would argue
the case of a man with God, who could go

(44:21):
to God and see if he could just resolve the
issue with us as people. It had to be something
like a son of man, the way the way a
son of a man would would defend his neighbor. Something
like that. Who does that sound like Jesus? And Job
is He's just He's just where is this? I need this?

(44:45):
And anybody that has ever doubted that the entire Bible
is about Jesus, you're having a rough day today because
here here it is all throughout the book of Job.
Now twenty two on a belongs with next week's lessen
but I'll hit it for you anyway, because it's gonna

(45:06):
shoot us the next week. He says, for when a
few years have come, I shall go the way from
which I shall not return. All he's saying there is
now I'm gonna go into this talk. Because remember we
arrange the chapters for our benefit. Joe's not speaking in chapters.
So what he's saying here is I'm just ready. Surely

(45:29):
my death is close. And he's going to start that
because if you notice, he's wanting this advocate, he's wanting
this intercessor, but he just doesn't know whether he's ever
gonna get it before he dies. And so next you'll
see that he kind of starts getting down, thinking, I
just can't seem to find my hope. And that's that

(45:53):
transition in twenty two. I just can't seem to find
my hope. But he knows what he wants, but he's
just not certain he can find it. See what I
can tell all of you and here and all of
you out there, we are living on the other side
of the cross. We are living on the other side

(46:13):
of the resurrection we are. We have God's presence with
us fully in the Holy Spirit. Jesus has been this intercessor.
Jesus has been the advocate. Jesus has been the friend,
so when all else seems to fail you and job

(46:36):
is going to say it before we're done, and he's
even said at once in a chapter or two back,
we're never without hope. I know you may not believe
that sometimes, but you're never without hope. If you've been redeemed,
then that is the hope that you always cling to,

(46:57):
even when it seems like there's nowhere to turn. And
we've all been there, and I've been there many times
when you think, you know what, I'm just getting down
to the end of it. I'm tired of this world.
I'm tired of this. And then you start thinking, I
don't know where my hope is. But what we always

(47:18):
have to be reminded of if you're redeemed, is my
hope is in Jesus. I have the indecessor, I have
the advocate, I have the Friend, and because of him,
everything that I've ever done wrong to God can be
made right. Everything I repent of God says yes, if

(47:43):
we're sincere in our heart. My son paid that for you.
But the other side of that is we also have
to cling to that hope when we realize that God
may be allowing us to go through difficulty. We can't
lose hope there either, and we have to learn to

(48:04):
turn and say, my hope is in you, and whatever
you're allowing right now is for my own good and
or for your glory. Because all of us know this,
don't we We all know this. When you're going through difficulty,

(48:26):
your faith really shines. It really really does. And I
think we've all seen it. I've seen people get pressed
pretty hard, and God was glorified, and I've seen people
get pressed pretty hard. And I've seen people turn on
Him and fail and embrace something that's not of Him

(48:49):
just because that was an easier road. I've seen it seen,
I've seen both. So let's listen to the pleadings of
Job today, and let's picture him now. What is it
must be like for Job now to be able to

(49:10):
look in the face every day? There he is. There's
the intercessor, there's the advocate, there's the friend. There's the
redeemer that I kept crying out for. Do you realize
that Job has met him. Job is in his presence,
and one day you will be too. I will be too.

(49:33):
Can you imagine? I can't even imagine what I would
say other than thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
And I'm sure i'd have a great speech plan, but
I bet you that's all that comes out. Imagine his glory.

(49:55):
Imagine hearing that worship as you're walking and you're You're there,
We're with him. Sickness is over, aging is over, death
and destruction is over. Disappointment is over. Concern about some
currency so you can survive is over. Everything's provided, You

(50:21):
want for nothing, and you just subide in him. Do
you believe that to be true? May give you hope today?
Let's pray, Lord, thank you for today, thank you for
this wonderful time together, and thank you for this incredible
message and this reminder of what really matters. So many

(50:42):
things we can't control sometimes that overwhelms us. Lord. This
world is spiraling in so many different directions when we
get pulled and we get tugged. Thank you, Lord for
being something that is steadfast. You are the foundation, You
are home, and you always calm the storm. Lord. If
there's anybody out there that today you made sure they

(51:04):
heard this message, and this is the day you've prompted
them that they say, I repent. I want that redemption,
I want that advocate, I want that intercessor. I want you, Jesus,
that they cry out to you Lord with the sincerity
of their heart, and they repent of their sin, and
they leave faith in themselves. Lord, when I had faith
in myself, myself always failed me. I'm so thankful I

(51:27):
shifted my faith to You, who have never failed me.
And may they do the same today, Lord, and experience
the joy and the peace and the hope of redemption
in You and your holy name. We pray Amen, Thanks
for being with us.