Calvary
Chapel Bible College
March
9, 2022
Start Recording
Homework
Memorize Job 13:15 (in NKJV)
(Job 13:15 NKJV) Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I
will defend my own ways before Him.
Having chewed on this, is there something you’ve learned?
Introduction
Job is going through the worst time anyone could imagine.
He’s lost all his possessions.
His children have died.
His health has failed.
What makes all this even more confusing is that Job is a good guy.
God has decided to allow Job to go through this difficulty because He is
proud of Job, not mad at him.
God wants to show the world what a godly man will do when he is going
through a difficult time.
Keep a couple of things in mind as we study Job:
Sometimes Job is wrong in his conclusions.
Sometimes Job’s friends are also wrong.
They can even say things that are true, but they might not be true about
Job.
Be careful about building doctrine upon some of the things said in the book
of Job.
Neither Job’s words nor those of his friends are meant to build doctrinal
truths on.
They simply show us how people respond to difficulty.
We’ve seen a pattern in Job where one of his friends speaks, and then Job
responds.
We’ve been through one complete round of debates with each friend having a
say.
This is now round two.
We will go through a total of three rounds.
15:1-16 Eliphaz:
Job is clueless
:1 Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
:1 Eliphaz the Temanite
Eliphaz is the kindest of Job’s friends and is also probably the
eldest. He’s not going to be so kind
this time.
:2 “Should a wise man answer with empty knowledge, And
fill himself with the east wind?
:3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk, Or by
speeches with which he can do no good?
:2 fill himself with the east wind
Job is just a windbag.
He’s filled with nothing but hot air.
:4 Yes, you cast off fear, And restrain prayer
before God.
:4 restrain prayer before God
Eliphaz is saying that Job’s lack of respect (fear) towards God is restraining
people from praying.
Job does have a little bit of a problem with his concept of God, so there’s
some truth to the idea that Job doesn’t fully respect or trust God in
the matter.
But at least he’s been talking with God.
Job’s friends on the other hand have yet to offer a prayer
toward God.
Lesson
Honesty with God
(keyword!!)
Some people, like Job’s friends, think that you should only come to God
when you have your life straightened out, and you can come and offer pious,
respectful prayers.
Some people don’t like straight forward honesty.
Illustration
A small town prosecuting attorney called his first
witness to the stand in a trial-a grandmotherly, elderly woman. He approached
her and asked, “Mrs. Jones, do you know me?” She responded, “Why, yes, I do
know you Mr. Williams. I’ve known you since you were a young boy. And frankly,
you’ve been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, you
manipulate people and talk about them behind their backs. You think you’re a
rising big shot when you haven’t the brains to realize you never will amount to
anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yes, I know you.” The lawyer was
stunned. Not knowing what else to do he pointed across the room and asked,
“Mrs. Williams, do you know the defense attorney?” She again replied, “Why, yes I do. I’ve known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster,
too. I used to baby-sit him for his parents. And he,
too, has been a real disappointment to me. He’s lazy, bigoted, he has a
drinking problem. The man can’t build a normal relationship with anyone and his law practice is one of the shoddiest in the
entire state. Yes, I know him.” At this point, the
judge rapped the courtroom to silence and called both counselors to the bench.
In a very quiet voice, she said with menace, “If either of you asks her if she
knows me, you’ll be jailed for contempt!
I think some people think that God is like those attorneys and can’t handle
the truth.
I think God can handle it when we’re honest with Him.
He prefers we talk to him honestly than not talking at all.
Keep in mind that when God finally speaks up, He will respond to Job, not
to Job’s friends.
Look at the honesty in David’s prayers in the Psalms, such as,
(Psalm 22:1–2 NKJV)
—1 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You
so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning? 2 O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; And in the
night season, and am not silent.
That’s the kind of prayer that Job’s friends might not
pray.
But David did.
And so did Jesus when He hung on the cross. Jesus quoted David’s prayer.
We need to learn respect and “fear” towards God, but God also wants us to
be honest.
:5 For your iniquity teaches your mouth, And you
choose the tongue of the crafty.
:6 Your own mouth condemns you, and not I; Yes, your own lips testify
against you.
:7 “Are you the first man who was born? Or were you made
before the hills?
:7 Are you the first man who was born
Eliphaz is questioning Job’s wisdom in his complaining.
He’s saying that Job hasn’t been around long enough
and he doesn’t know enough to be challenging what God is doing.
This is exactly what God will challenge Job about when God finally speaks
up.
(Job 38:1–4 NKJV)
—1 Then the Lord
answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: 2 “Who is this who darkens
counsel By words without knowledge? 3 Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall
answer Me. 4 “Where were
you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have
understanding.
Lesson
Truth from the wrong people
We sometimes make the mistake of thinking that truth is based upon how good
or how nice the person is that’s speaking to us.
If a person is being mean or misunderstands us, then we have the right to
throw out everything they say and consider it worthless.
Truth is still truth, no matter who is speaking it.
We need to be asking ourselves, “Is there something I can be learning
here?”
Statements aren’t true just because the person speaking is nice.
Statements aren’t true because the person speaking is mean.
Statements are true because they’re true.
When the Jews were making their plans to have Jesus arrested and killed,
one of the worst men made an amazing statement:
(John 11:47–52
NKJV) —47 Then the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered a council and
said, “What shall we do? For this Man works many signs. 48 If we let
Him alone like this, everyone will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and
take away both our place and nation.” 49 And one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said to
them, “You know nothing at all, 50 nor do you consider that it is expedient for us that one man should
die for the people, and not that the whole nation should perish.” 51 Now this he
did not say on his own authority; but being high priest that year he
prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52 and not for that nation only, but
also that He would gather together in one the children of God who were
scattered abroad.
Caiaphas meant that Jesus’ death would keep the Romans
from wiping out the Jews, yet it actually had a deeper
meaning.
Jesus would die to pay for the sins of the world.
If any of the disciples had been in that council at that
time, and heard Caiaphas say what he said, how many would have paid much attention to
what he said?
Yet he actually spoke truth.
:8 Have you heard the counsel of God? Do you limit wisdom to yourself?
:9 What do you know that we do not know? What do you understand that is not in us?
:9 What do you know that we do not know?
Both Job and his friends will say something similar to
this.
They are treating these “debates” as some sort of competition, as if the
one who says the most interesting, unique things wins.
Comforting people doesn’t come from winning a
debate competition.
Comforting starts with compassion and understanding.
:10 Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us, Much older than
your father.
:10 the gray-haired and the aged
Eliphaz is reminding Job that these three friends
are all older than he is. He ought to
respect them and be paying attention to them.
Lesson
Wisdom and age
If you have to remind people how old and wise you
are, there’s a problem.
Someone once said, “When an older man and a younger man are together, the
older man should never bring up his age and wisdom, and the younger man should
never forget it.”
:11 Are the consolations of God too small for you, And the word spoken
gently with you?
;11 Are the consolations of God too small for you
Lesson
God’s comfort is enough
What Eliphaz is saying is absolutely true.
God’s comfort IS enough.
(2 Corinthians 1:3
NKJV) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of mercies and God of all comfort
The problem might be in how he probably is saying it.
:11 the word spoken gently with you
Lesson
Fake Gentleness
Eliphaz is implying that he and the others are the ones that God has sent
to bring Job comfort.
He’s claiming that they’ve spoken “gently” to Job.
We don’t hear the tone of voice that Eliphaz speaks with. He may be speaking with a gentle tone of
voice, but the words are very, very harsh.
I hate it when people speak quietly but condescendingly to you, as if they
have it all figured out, when they don’t.
:12 Why does your heart carry you away, And what
do your eyes wink at,
:13 That you turn your spirit against God, And let
such words go out of your mouth?
:14 “What is man, that he could be pure? And he who is born
of a woman, that he could be righteous?
:15 If God puts no trust in His saints, And the heavens are not pure
in His sight,
:16 How much less man, who is abominable and filthy, Who drinks iniquity like water!
:15 If God puts no trust in His saints
saints – qadowsh – sacred, holy, Holy One, set
apart
Eliphaz may be referring to angels here.
Eliphaz is the oldest one, and is doing what old
men do. He’s repeating himself. He already said:
(Job 4:18 NKJV) If He puts
no trust in His servants, If He charges His angels with error,
He’s referring to fallen angels who are no longer following God. (2Pet.
2:4)
(2 Peter 2:4 NKJV) For if God
did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and
delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;
(Jude 6 NKJV) And the
angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has
reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;
:16 man, who is abominable and filthy
Lesson
Reasons for trouble
Eliphaz is saying that if even angels have sinned and gotten into trouble
with God, how much more man who is even more abominable.
Eliphaz is again stating truth. Man is sinful.
(Romans 3:10–12
NKJV) —10 As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; 11 There is
none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. 12 They have
all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is
none who does good, no, not one.”
(Romans 3:23 NKJV) for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God
It is also true that trouble exists in this world because of our sin.
Some people like to blame everything on God, when in fact mankind brought
all the trouble.
This is a result of the “curse” that came upon mankind and the world as a result of Adam and Eve’s sin:
(Genesis
3:16–19 NKJV) —16 To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you
shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall
rule over you.”
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your
wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall
not eat of it’: “Cursed is
the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life. 18 Both thorns
and thistles it shall bring forth for you, And you shall eat the herb of the
field. 19 In the sweat
of your face you shall eat bread Till you return to the ground, For out of it
you were taken; For dust you
are, And to dust you shall return.”
The problem with Eliphaz’ reasoning is that he too falls into that
category, a sinner.
If Job is going through his tough time simply because he is a sinful man
like everyone else, then how is it that you can say that Job’s problems are
caused by his sin when Eliphaz isn’t going through the exact same thing?
“Theodicy” – trying to understand why bad things happen to “good” people.
15:17-35 Eliphaz: Wicked will perish
:17 “I will tell you, hear me; What I have seen I will declare,
:18 What wise men have told, Not hiding anything
received from their fathers,
:19 To whom alone the land was given, And no alien
passed among them:
:20 The wicked man writhes with pain all his days, And the number of
years is hidden from the oppressor.
:20 The wicked man writhes with pain
This is not always true.
Job has already pointed out a problem that many of us also struggle with,
that it seems like wicked people just get away with everything and have no
problems.
(Job 12:6 NKJV) The tents of
robbers prosper,
And those who provoke God are secure— In what God provides by His hand.
The Psalmist also said the same thing:
(Psalm 73:4–5 NKJV)
—4 For there are no pangs in their death, But their
strength is firm. 5 They are not in trouble as other men, Nor are they
plagued like other men.
:21 Dreadful sounds are in his ears; In prosperity the destroyer
comes upon him.
:22 He does not believe that he will return from darkness, For a sword is waiting for him.
:23 He wanders about for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’ He
knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand.
:24 Trouble and anguish make him afraid; They overpower him, like a king
ready for battle.
:24 Trouble and anguish make him afraid
Again, there may be some wicked people who are terrified of what the future
holds, but I don’t think this is a thing that is common to all wicked people.
:25 For he stretches out his hand against God, And acts defiantly against
the Almighty,
:26 Running stubbornly against Him With his strong, embossed shield.
:26 Running stubbornly against Him
The wicked thinks he can even get away with fighting with God.
:27 “Though he has covered his face with his fatness, And
made his waist heavy with fat,
:28 He dwells in desolate cities, In houses which
no one inhabits, Which are destined to become ruins.
:29 He will not be rich, Nor will his wealth
continue, Nor will his possessions overspread the
earth.
:30 He will not depart from darkness; The flame will dry out his branches, And by the breath of His mouth he will go away.
:31 Let him not trust in futile things, deceiving himself, For futility will be his reward.
:32 It will be accomplished before his time, And
his branch will not be green.
:33 He will shake off his unripe grape like a vine, And
cast off his blossom like an olive tree.
:34 For the company of hypocrites will be barren, And
fire will consume the tents of bribery.
:35 They conceive trouble and bring forth futility; Their womb prepares
deceit.”
:35 They conceive trouble and bring forth futility
Eliphaz’ whole point is that Job has brought all this trouble upon himself.
Job is the “hypocrite” (vs. 34) that has brought all this destruction.
Lesson
God will judge
What Eliphaz is saying is absolutely true as
objective truth.
God will one day judge the world.
Even though an ungodly person may prosper and become rich and fat in this
world, they will one day stand before God in judgment.
The problem is that this truth does not apply to Job.
Job isn’t being judged by God.
Lesson
Don’t count on it now
If you think that a wicked person is always going to be caught and brought
down in this life, you are going to be disappointed.
There are going to be some people who will live comfortable, luxurious
lives in their wickedness, and you’re going to wonder how this could be fair.
The truth is that the judgment will come, but for some, it may not come
until after they die.
One of the things Eliphaz is implying is that if you turn from your sins,
then life will be happy and wonderful and you will
have no problems.
But this is false.
This is at the core of what Satan was challenging God with
– that Job only served God because God blessed Job.
We shouldn’t serve God because life will be better. We should serve God because He is God.
16:1-5 Job: Miserable comforters
:1 Then Job answered and said:
:2 “I have heard many such things; Miserable comforters are you all!
:2 Miserable comforters are you all
With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Are you going through a difficult time?
How well are your friends doing with bringing “comfort”?
Do you have a friend going through a difficult
time?
How do you think they would describe your “comfort”?
:3 Shall words of wind have an end? Or what
provokes you that you answer?
:3 words of wind
They called him a windbag (15:2). He
gives what he got.
(Job 15:2 NKJV) “Should a
wise man answer with empty knowledge, And fill himself with the east wind?
Windbags are people who talk a lot but don’t really say anything.
:4 I also could speak as you do, If your
soul were in my soul’s place. I could heap up words
against you, And shake my head at you;
:5 But I would strengthen you with my mouth, And the comfort of my
lips would relieve your grief.
:5 I would strengthen … comfort
Lesson
Helping others
If you want to treat other people right, think about how you would be like
to be treated.
Jesus said,
(Matthew
7:12 NKJV) Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for
this is the Law and the Prophets.
Those who have been through great difficulty can sometimes be the best
comforters because they know how to be treated.
Paul wrote,
(2 Corinthians
1:3–4 NKJV) —3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to
comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves
are comforted by God.
We can comfort others when we’ve received God’s comfort.
We can comfort with what we’ve received from God.
Job tells his friends what he would do if he were in their shoes.
strengthen – ‘amats – to be strong, alert, courageous, brave, stout, bold
Strengthen –
our words should bring hope to others.
They should stir up courage and strength in those we speak to.
comfort – chasak – to withhold, restrain, hold back,
keep in check, refrain
Comfort – our
words should act as a dam for the flood of grief the other person is feeling.
16:6-16 Job: God is after me
:6 “Though I speak, my grief is not relieved; And if I remain
silent, how am I eased?
:7 But now He has worn me out; You have made
desolate all my company.
:7 made desolate all my company
(Job 16:7 NLT) “O God, you
have ground me down and devastated my family.
:8 You have shriveled me up, And it is a witness against
me; My leanness rises up against me And bears witness to my face.
:9 He tears me in His wrath, and hates me;
He gnashes at me with His teeth; My adversary sharpens His gaze on me.
:10 They gape at me with their mouth, They strike
me reproachfully on the cheek, They gather
together against me.
Doesn’t that sound like Jesus? Isn’t
it interesting that Job’s suffering parallels Jesus in more than a few ways.
:11 God has delivered me to the ungodly, And
turned me over to the hands of the wicked.
:11 turned me over to the hands of the wicked
I think Job is talking about his friends here.
:12 I was at ease, but He has shattered me; He also has taken me by
my neck, and shaken me to pieces; He has set me up for His target,
:13 His archers surround me. He pierces my heart and does not pity; He
pours out my gall on the ground.
:13 His archers surround me
God has His snipers aiming at me.
By the way … is this true? Is God
out to “get” Job? No.
:14 He breaks me with wound upon wound; He runs at me like a warrior.
:15 “I have sewn sackcloth over my skin, And laid
my head in the dust.
:16 My face is flushed from weeping, And on my
eyelids is the shadow of death;
16:17-22 Job: Struggling to trust God
:17 Although no violence is in my hands, And
my prayer is pure.
:18 “O earth, do not cover my blood, And let my
cry have no resting place!
:19 Surely even now my witness is in heaven, And
my evidence is on high.
:20 My friends scorn me; My eyes pour out tears to God.
:20 My friends scorn me
Lesson
God and friends
Job is learning a valuable but difficult lesson.
We all need friends.
We all need people in our lives to help us in difficult times.
But there are going to be times when all the people that you have learned
to count on won’t be there for you.
David wrote,
(Psalm 27:10 NLT) Even if my
father and mother abandon me, the Lord
will hold me close.
Corrie Ten Boom wrote,
“You’ll never know the Lord is all you need, until the Lord is all you
have.”
:21 Oh, that one might plead for a man with God, As
a man pleads for his neighbor!
:22 For when a few years are finished, I shall go the way of no return.
:21 that one might plead for a man with God
Lesson
Jesus will plead for us
In the Roman Catholic tradition, people are taught to pray to the saints in
heaven and ask them to intercede with God on their behalf since they’re closer
to God than we are.
We can do one better.
Why ask Mary or Peter to pray for you when you can ask Jesus?
Jesus is our advocate, our “defense attorney”.
(1 John 2:1–2 NKJV)
—1 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may
not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous. 2
And
He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for
the whole world.
Some defense attorneys will lie and manipulate the
loopholes in the law to get a guilty man set free.
That’s not how Jesus operates.
Jesus pleads with the Father for us, and He can do it
because He is the one who has already served our sentence. He has paid for our sin.
Jesus continually to pray for us.
(Hebrews 7:25 NKJV)
Therefore
He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him,
since He always lives to make intercession for them.
He doesn’t just pray for us one time,
but continually prays for us and makes sure we will get to heaven, to be
“saved to the uttermost”.
Break??
17:1-9 Job prays
:1 “My spirit is broken, My days are extinguished,
The grave is ready for me.
:2 Are not mockers with me? And does not my
eye dwell on their provocation?
:3 “Now put down a pledge for me with Yourself. Who is
he who will shake hands with me?
:3 put down a pledge for me with Yourself
(Job 17:3 NLT) “You must
defend my innocence, O God, since no one else will stand up for me.
None of Job’s friends seem to want to take a stand for him. Job asks God to. I like that.
:4 For You have hidden their heart from understanding; Therefore
You will not exalt them.
:5 He who speaks flattery to his friends, Even the eyes of his
children will fail.
:5 who speaks flattery to his friends
(Job 17:5 The
Message) Those who betray their own friends leave a legacy of abuse to their
children.
Some heavy words.
:6 “But He has made me a byword of the people, And I have become one in
whose face men spit.
:7 My eye has also grown dim because of sorrow, And
all my members are like shadows.
:8 Upright men are astonished at this, And the innocent stirs
himself up against the hypocrite.
:9 Yet the righteous will hold to his way, And he
who has clean hands will be stronger and stronger.
:9 Yet the righteous will hold to his way
Lesson
Keep serving
Even though good, upright people are astonished at what is happening to
Job, they will keep on doing what it right.
When we see righteous people suffer, we get confused.
We can step back and want to stop serving because this might lead us into
being uncomfortable if we too end up suffering.
Sometimes we are too “addicted” to comfort.
When we are going through a rough time, we want to stop everything and wait
until we find some sort of “comfort”.
We need to keep doing what it right. Serving Jesus is not about being comfortable.
17:10-16 Job: I’m hopeless
:10 “But please, come back again, all of you, For I shall not find one
wise man among you.
:10 come back again, all of you
Job seems to be taunting his friends to keep trying with their arguments.
He is not convinced there is a single wise man among them.
:11 My days are past, My purposes are broken off, Even
the thoughts of my heart.
:12 They change the night into day; ‘The light is
near,’ they say, in the face of darkness.
:13 If I wait for the grave as my house, If I make my bed in
the darkness,
:13 If I make my bed in the darkness
David will take some of these thoughts and answer it…
(Psalm 139:8 NKJV) If I ascend into heaven, You are
there; If I make my
bed in hell, behold, You are there.
:14 If I say to corruption, ‘You are my
father,’ And to the worm, ‘You are my mother
and my sister,’
:15 Where then is my hope? As for my hope,
who can see it?
:16 Will they go down to the gates of Sheol? Shall we have
rest together in the dust?”
:15 Where then is my hope?
Lesson
Hope in Jesus
(keyword!!)
We need to be careful as to where we put our hopes.
If we put our hopes in our circumstances getting better or changing to be
what we dream they could be, we may end up being disappointed.
But if our hope is in Jesus, we’ll never be disappointed.
We need to keep our eyes on the rewards that Jesus has for us, knowing that
He will make everything worthwhile, but not necessarily in this life.
(2 Corinthians
4:7–18 NLT) —7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are
like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that
our great power is from God, not from ourselves. 8 We are pressed on every side by
troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but
not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by
God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. 10 Through
suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life
of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies. 11 Yes, we live under constant danger of death because we serve Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus will be evident in our dying bodies. 12 So we live
in the face of death, but this has resulted in eternal life for you. 13 But we
continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when
he said, “I believed in God, so I spoke.” 14 We know that God, who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us
with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. 15 All of this
is for your benefit. And as God’s grace reaches more and more
people, there will be great thanksgiving, and God will receive more and more glory. 16 That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our
spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our
present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a
glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t
look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on
things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but
the things we cannot see will last forever.
Illustration
An old missionary couple had been working in Africa for years and were
returning to New York to retire. They had no pension; their health was broken;
they were defeated, discouraged, and afraid. They discovered they were booked
on the same ship as President Teddy Roosevelt, who was returning from one of
his big-game hunting expeditions.
No one paid any attention to them. They watched the fanfare that
accompanied the President’s entourage, with passengers trying to catch a
glimpse of the great man.
As the ship moved across the ocean, the old missionary said to his wife,
“Something is wrong. Why should we have given our lives in faithful service for
God in Africa all these many years and have no one care a thing about us? Here
this man comes back from a hunting trip and everybody
makes much over him, but nobody gives two hoots about us.”
“Dear, you shouldn’t feel that way,” his wife said.
“I can’t help it; it doesn’t seem right.”
When the ship docked in New York, a band was waiting to greet the
President. The mayor and other dignitaries were there. The papers were full of
the President’s arrival, but no one noticed this missionary couple. They
slipped off the ship and found a cheap flat on the East Side, hoping the next
day to see what they could do to make a living in the city.
That night the man’s spirit broke. He said to his wife, “I can’t take this;
God is not treating us fairly.”
His wife replied, “Why don’t you go in the bedroom and tell that to the
Lord?”
A short time later he came out from the bedroom, but now his face was
completely different. His wife asked, “Dear, what happened?”
“The Lord settled it with me,” he said. “I told him how bitter I was that
the President should receive this tremendous homecoming, when no one met us as
we returned home. And when I finished, it seemed as though the Lord put his
hand on my shoulder and simply said, ‘But you’re not home yet!’”
-- Ray Stedman, Talking to My Father
That’s where our “gaze” needs to be.
On heaven. That’s where our hope
is, not in the circumstances of our life, which are only for a moment, but on heaven which is forever.
Pericope Project
How would you title chapter 15?
Eliphaz blows smoke; Eliphaz: I don’t understand you
How would you title chapter 16?
Misery loves company; Job: You all are no help
How would you title chapter 17?
Humble me; Job:
I’m broken
Mars Hill
Is everyone comfortable talking about this episode?
Listen to episode #5 of “The Rise And
Fall Of Mars Hill”
“The Things We Do To Women”
Gender roles
Women should not work outside the home.
Men should provide. Buy houses. Lead the home.
Women should have kids
Can’t be an elder if wife works outside the home
“History” of evangelical men roles - men as defenders
Mark talking about Promise Keepers
Post 911 -
**The world is bad, other churches are bad, using fear to keep people
Mark would stick up for abused women
Violence and anger
Who do you think you are?? Looking into the camera, take an offering, fill
out an visitor card - there were five services, he did
the whole thing five times.
Do people change with the power of shame?
Mark got a book deal out of it
Biblical porn
Wives needed to please their husbands sexually or men would stray.
Talking about oral sex as a command
Blaming women for men’s sexual sins
Homework
For this coming week:
Read Job 13-18 in NLT
Memorize Job 16:10 (in NKJV)
(Job 16:10 NKJV) They gape at me with their mouth, They strike me
reproachfully on the cheek, They gather together
against me.
Be ready to recite it in class next week.
Memorize it soon so you can chew on it during the week.
Go to our class’ “test” section
I’d like you to share a prayer request
There will be a quick quiz for you.
Listen to episode #6 of “The Rise And
Fall Of Mars Hill”
“The Brand”
Write a short paragraph summarizing the episode and how it has affected
your spiritual walk.
Keywords
What was the first “keyword” …
a.
Honesty with God
b.
Don’t tell God everything
c.
Watch what you say to God
What was the second “keyword” …
a.
Hope in Jesus
b.
Hope for the best
c.
Things will get better
Was there something from today’s lesson that you can apply to your life
TODAY?