The Bible Provocateur
The Bible Provocateur
LIVE DISCUSSION: JOB 7:1,2 - Man's Appointed Time (PART 1 of 3)
What if your time is already measured—and your work today echoes into eternity? We walk through Job 7 to uncover a bracing truth: life has fixed boundaries set by God, and within them we’re called to labor like hired workers under a wise and sovereign Master. That lens changes everything. Purpose is not about comfort or clout; it’s about faithfulness that glorifies Christ and prepares us for the rest God promises beyond the heat of the day.
We press into the hireling metaphor to ask the hard questions: What is our actual assignment? How do evangelism, obedience, and love fit into a life that’s brief and bounded? And how does the promise of resurrection in John 5 calibrate our priorities when both the righteous and the unrighteous will be raised? Along the way, we confront a cultural fixation on “goats” and “stars,” exposing how easy it is to promote human fame while neglecting the glory of Jesus, the true star of Jacob. If we’re promoters, our campaign should be Christ’s renown—his beauty, his authority, his saving work.
We also tackle the seduction of comfort. Ease can numb dependence, breed complacency, and turn vibrant faith into silence. Job’s longing for shade isn’t quitting; it’s the honest hope for rest after work is done. That desire invites us to live awake: to hold comforts lightly, guard our hearts against distraction, and keep our attention on the One who endured suffering without sin. Affliction and faith can coexist, because the power isn’t in how much faith we muster, but in whom our faith rests—Jesus.
Listen for a frank, scripture-shaped call to purpose: glorify God, serve as ministers of reconciliation, and steward your appointed days with courage. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs clarity, and leave a review so more people can find truth that steadies the soul.
BE PROVOKED AND BE PERSUADED!
Christians. Good evening and tonight, this Sunday night. I hope and trust that you had a enjoyable weekend, a relaxing weekend. And um tonight we're going to continue the series on the exposition of the book of Job. And we're going to be in chapter seven. We're going to be in Job chapter seven. Good evening, sisters. Sister Lisa. Glad to have you. CJG, glad you can make it. Glad you can make it. So we're going to get into this chapter. And we uh ended chapter six with Job telling his friends basically that he would keep his mouth shut if they have a grounds for their suspicions. If they have reasoning, good reasons to see him as being at fault for some secret sin or series of sins. And so Job, after hearing Eliphaz, he decided to say, okay, listen, here's what I'll do. I'll stop talking. I'm gonna stop talking and I'll be silent. And if there is a case that you can make against me, I want to hear it and I want to be corrected.
SPEAKER_06:But up to this point, thus far, you have not made that case with them to make a case. This is what we are dealing with right now.
SPEAKER_07:So now we we we find out um where we left off in verse 30 of chapter six, we where Job says, Is there iniquity in my tongue? Cannot my taste deserve perverse things, and he's saying, Listen, is there sin with me? Is there sin with me? And cannot I discern that which is perverse? And he's assuming that he can. So he's basically appealing to them once again to say, please correct me. Correct me, show me that there is iniquity on my tongue. Give me the opportunity to see whether or not I can agree with your assessment of me. And so this is where we are right now. This is where we are right now. Now we come to Job chapter 7 and verse 1. Let me read the first three verses. Is there not an appointed time to man upon the earth? Are not his days also like the days of a hireling? As a servant earnestly desires the shadow, and as the hireling looks for the reward of his work, so am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me. So to begin with, Job starts this chapter by asking the question to these his friends. And the question that he is asking is a profound one. And it's not because he doesn't know the answer, he is trying to get them to recall something that seems to me that they should already know. And he says, the qu he asks the question, is there not an appointed time to man for man upon earth? And the answer demands the reply of that which is positive. Yes, there is an appointed time for man upon the earth. And it says, and he asks, are not his days also like the days of a hireling? Of course they are. Of course they are. It is for a short period of time. And Job begins by acknowledging that man's life has fixed boundaries. Man's life has a particular allocation of time assigned to it that he cannot go beyond. One of the things that we have talked many times about in this regard is the fact that Job understands something that his friends don't understand, or at least are not willing to appeal to, in order to bring some modicum of order to the discussion that they are currently having. And here's what I mean: Job understands the sovereignty of the Lord God Almighty. Job understands this. And this is something that a person who understands the sovereignty of God understands. Is there not an appointed time for man on earth? And the answer is that there absolutely is. Man himself cannot choose to go beyond the boundaries of the allotted time given to him. No matter how much he may desire, or no matter how much man believes he has a will, he cannot go beyond the boundaries that God set before him for his existence on this earth. And that means when we talk about boundaries in a plural sense, I'm saying from the standpoint, man does not have the ability to shorten his life, nor the ability to add to his life. Man's life, every one of our lives, has an appointed time whereby we are given to resolve our issues with the Lord. Now, some might say, well, what if I take my own? God forbid anyone should do such a thing. But I will say to you once again, the time of a person's existence on earth is ordered and determined by the Lord God Almighty. Job knows this. He knows this. He acknowledges this by this question. Man's existence is not free and unbounded. It is appointed, it is measured, and during that time, it is filled with labor. He is expected to work, to perform a duty while he's here. Job acknowledges this in the second part of this first verse when he says, Are not man's days also like the days of a hireling, a servant, a worker? So the reason for our existence is to labor. It is to perform in the role of a hireling. We have duty here to do. We have a duty here. And so the hired servant who labors, and the hired servant who toils in this duty, this responsibility, he cannot change his term. Meaning the term of his life that is set in stone. And saying, and so what we have here is a situation where men, all men, must live under these conditions, and they cannot escape it. In other words, you're you're you're going to be here for a particular period of time, which begins on a given day and ends on a specified day, and that is a day determined by God. All life. God is not asking man for permission to be fair in accord with the conditions of the mentality of man and his wisdom. God is not asking men how long they want to live outside of salvation versus rejecting Christ and remaining in their sin. In either case, your life will continue to perpetuate after death. But what we are here to do is to work as a hireling to alter, hopefully, the quality of our life going into eternity. When the Lord Jesus Christ returns here on that resurrection morning, every soul is going to be raised from the dead. Every soul, righteous and unrighteous, just and unjust. All people are going to be resurrected. Go read John chapter 5. The Lord Jesus Christ, he says it himself. All are going to be raised. But how you conducted yourself, the labor that you performed on this earth while you were here is going to determine how you live in the afterlife. It's going to determine the quality of your eternal existence going forward. This is why we are persuaded. This is why I am persuaded to preach to as many people as I possibly can so that you understand that when you shut your eyes here, you wake up in eternity, whether you are saved or whether you are not saved. And when you die in your sins, there is no way to alter that condition and find salvation after death. And the same goes for the believer who believes now and has eternal life and has labored faithfully as a servant to the Lord Jesus Christ. When they die here, they're going to go into eternal glory, having a glorified body, they're going to live with the Lord and his saints in the presence of God and his angels for eternity. And when they die and wake up in eternity, there's no possible way for them to slip back into the state of darkness and condemnation and find themselves on the receiving end of the lake of fire. There's no way. Somebody says you have a fascinating religion. You're absolutely right, we do. We do. And so Job is also showing here that life itself is already fraught with burdens, already fraught with affliction and hardships. And he says that he's conveying to us that intense suffering should not be treated as extraordinary and something to blame. And this is what he's telling his friends. I shouldn't be ashamed of my trial in this life. It is my lot in life by God given to me to endure and to bear. Christ himself, being our forerunner, he also himself came here, suffered in his flesh for us for deeds, he did nothing wrong. For sin he did not commit. For evil deeds that he did not do. And he suffered when the full authority of all of the brass of heaven was behind him. He could have called down an army to end the whole planet and the whole existence of creation in a moment. But he didn't. And we look to our Lord's suffering as a model for us to have to go through some degree of affliction in this life. This is what is Job is going through. But Job understands, I have a short life. And the Bible tells us clearly what our responsibility is here to do. He says, Are not man's days like the days of a hirling? So this is where I will stop, and I'm going to go to my small panel tonight and ask you. My question is going to be this to you. What is our role as a hireling, as a servant here? What is it to do? What is man's responsibility for him to do? What is he here to do while he has this life, this existence? What are we supposed to do? What does the Bible say our goals should be in this life? So I'll start with Sister Candy. Good evening, sister. How are you?
SPEAKER_04:How are you?
SPEAKER_07:I'm doing all right. What's our goal? What's our job here?
SPEAKER_04:What's our job? Our job is to love, tell me about God, I'm a hard body minded so.
SPEAKER_06:It's hard to hear you. Okay.
SPEAKER_04:I'll text. I'll come back to reading it.
SPEAKER_07:Alright. Sister Mariah. What is man's responsibility on earth for the time that he's here? What's his responsibility?
SPEAKER_02:Um, well, I would say that we are God's workmanship. So um we have the mission of working with God, um, shortly in reconciliation. It says that we have a uh a ministry of reconciliation to do before the Lord. So that's what I think truly is our goal as believers. Um of course, as Candy said, yes, we're to love, but that's more of a commandment. What's as as far as work, I believe we work hand in hand as um as beautiful as God has allowed us to, even though it's him doing the work, you know. Uh he has created us to actually work to bring people to the kingdom.
SPEAKER_07:And that's and that is what you're referring to as the ministry of reconciliation, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, sir.
SPEAKER_07:All right. So that's that's a good response, dear sister. Appreciate it. Brother Jeffrey, what are your thoughts on this, brother? And good evening.
SPEAKER_01:And good evening, sir, and good evening to everybody and our miniature panel tonight. Hopefully, we'll have some more join us here shortly.
SPEAKER_06:No matter, brother.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, for sure, man. The Spirit of God is here, regardless of that. Uh, first off, is to uh receive Christ as Savior so we can then be justified and then to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, body, and soul. And when you do that, you're gonna be walking then and desiring to walk in whatever his will is for your life. Now, along the way, we're gonna be sharing Christ with more people, hopefully, like we're doing tonight, so that they can see that there is salvation available to them. But that's our job is to be a reflection of Christ so that others can see their need for him as well.
SPEAKER_07:Amen, brother. Um, sister Lisa, what do you think? What's the what's what's our role here as hirelings?
SPEAKER_03:Well, I would agree with what everybody said so far. Um, we are to share the gospel of of our Lord. Um we are to serve him, we are to do his will, we are to submit. Um, yeah, we are we are to work for the kingdom. That's what I'd say.
SPEAKER_07:All right. Sounds good. Brother Michael, welcome, brother. Have a good uh good evening.
SPEAKER_05:Hey, hey, hey. Uh so uh on that uh it makes me think of the uh parables on uh when the uh master went out and got some guys at work in the morning, and then he went back out, got some more, and so forth like that. The thing about a hireling is they already are in the job. So I I consider a hireling to already be a child of God, and you do what the master's uh command is. Right. And whatever everything that everyone's been saying that's all falls under that.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah. I I agree with you. I I think that I think that that is uh everybody has been right on this one, and whatever, because the ultimate the what is ultimately happens out of all these things, being his workmanship, being ministers of reconciliation, loving God with all their heart, and loving the and loving uh brothers and sisters and and and even our enemies. And so everybody's been saying the right things, but the the the Bible teaches us that the chief end of man, excuse me, the chief end of man is to glorify God. That's that's that's what we're to do here, to glorify him. And that's what all these things that everyone has been saying, that's what it is. That's the all these things tend to that very thing. The goal here is to glorify the Lord, to glorify him, to raise up his esteem, the esteem of him in the eyes of all. That is what we're supposed to do. Um, so we we live in a time, especially here in America, um, where everything that is glorious in the eyes of man is tied to celebrities. There's always some ongoing conversation going on about who's the goat of this or who's the goat of that. You know, and so the re well, so when we talk about this, what are we talking about? Who is who is the most famous, who is the most glorious, who is the greatest at this or that particular thing? And it's odd to me that many of us don't even look at the significance of this idolatry because that's what it is. And so, and what I mean by this, think about this for a second. You got ever I'm telling you, every any given day, you can scroll through this platform and you find people talking about who's the goat in this, who's the goat in that?
SPEAKER_06:Goat, not sheep, who's the goat, not the sheep, who's the goat.
SPEAKER_07:And I don't think this is an accident that that God, in all of his sovereign wisdom, makes this the thing that men talk about.
SPEAKER_06:Who's the goat? And what we'll find out.
SPEAKER_07:Is that the goats of this world, the goats of this world don't have access to where the sheep of this world will dwell in the afterlife? We need to be trying to turn all people into sheep. Sheep breed sheep. You know what goats breed? Goats. So we need to have we need to think about this. I'm thinking the next time you hear somebody talking about who's the goat, is it Jordan? Is it LeBron? Is it is it Michael Jackson or Justin Timberlake or whoever? Who's the goat? There is no glory and benefit in being the goat. Promoting the fame of other men or women, promoting their fame, is what Christians are supposed to do about the Lord Jesus Christ. What are we talking about when we're talking about his glory? We're talking about his fame. That's what we're talking about. Our jobs here, our job here is to be the promoter of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to put this thing in human terms that we all understand, we are here as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ to be promoters of the glory of God, promoting his fame. That is what we're supposed to be doing. I also don't believe it's a coincidence. What do we refer to celebrities as?
SPEAKER_06:Stars. Stars. Luminaries. What are stars supposed to be?
SPEAKER_07:Stars are reflectors or of light, or they are light bearers. God calls his sons stars. He calls us as believers light bearers. But we, when we refer to stars in our life here, we're talking about celebrities, people who are famous. But the Lord Jesus Christ is called the star of Jacob. That's the only star we should be worshiping. The star of Jacob. To promote his fame. Anyone who is seeking fame unto themselves is trespassing on the Lord's territory.
SPEAKER_06:Trespassing.
SPEAKER_07:And so our goal and our job as hirelings in this world is to promote the fame and glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and to show forth his praises and to communicate to others that it is he and he alone who must be esteemed, and it is him who must consume the real estate of our minds and hearts. All of it. Not to share real estate with the celebrity of this world.
SPEAKER_06:Job verse 2, chapter 7, verse 2.
SPEAKER_07:Job goes on to say, as a servant who earnestly desires the shadow, and as a hireling looks forward for the reward of his work. So what's he doing now? Now he's comparing himself to this hiring or this work worker who is who is so involved in his work, so intense in his work, that now he's beginning to be, he he's he's getting he's working in the heat of the day, so to speak. And so it says here, he compares himself, he he it says here that he's comparing himself to a laborer, a hireling, who needs to go and find shade. And he looks forward to the end of his day when he gets to break from all of his work, when he gets to break forever from all of his work. He also compares himself to a hired man who's awaiting for his wages so that he can be released from his labor. Like Sister Lisa said, so that he can rest. Working, working for his glory, working to see his fame be multiplied over the earth, working to esteem him the greatest among all of all, in all things. And so Job is saying that as a servant, he earnestly desires the shade where he gets to relax and repose and find repose and find comfort when after his labor is done. When is his labor being done? In this life, this whole life, the entirety of this life. We are supposed to be here to work. This is not the place to find comfort. But we are bred in a society where everyone is always pursuing everything that is designed for human comfort. And what does human comfort, what does human comfort make people do? This is my question to the panel now. What does human comfort cause people to do? What is the result of the accumulation of human comforts? What does it do? Let's start with Sister Candy. Let me give you another shot to get started again in case your microphone got worked out. What does comfort do to the Christian soul? What's that?
SPEAKER_04:Well, for the Christian soul, what does comfort do?
SPEAKER_07:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Or for the world, man, God.
SPEAKER_07:It doesn't matter, it's the same.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, well, if you're a true Christian and you're in comfort in the Lord, then you're not going to forget about Him. But if you're a human God in the world, then those that are comfortable in what they're doing, they're going to forget about the Lord God Almighty.
SPEAKER_06:All right, so forget God.
SPEAKER_07:Okay, that's a good one.
SPEAKER_06:Sister Meg, what do you think?
SPEAKER_00:Apologize. What's the question, Brother Jonathan? I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_07:What does worldly comfort produce in men?
SPEAKER_00:I think worldly comfort produces contentment and not a need for God. They feel that they can do everything on their own, that they don't need God, and I think it's it's also a tool to deceive.
SPEAKER_06:To deceive. Okay. All right.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I have to um agree with Meg and Candy. Um, the comforts of the world tend um tend to make us forget about our need and and our need for God. So we we lose our dependency on him, we become independent of him when we're too comfortable.
SPEAKER_07:Absolutely. Good one there. Brother Michael, what do you think?
SPEAKER_05:Well, I'm kind of thinking, you know, Job wants to die here. He wants to get out of his misery. He never had to deal with this before. And so, kind of like what the uh ladies are talking about, you know, beforehand, he was fine. He was all good about it, getting up, doing his, burn his incense for God and this and that. But now he's in a hard spot. And so it it if we are always having these comforts of the world, then we don't know what one, we don't know what it's like to be uh conformed to Christ. We just don't. Uh we are to suffer so that we may be conformed to his image, and so it shows it here that there's kind of a loss of faith almost because he's never had to deal with it because of all the comforts, and he's just wanting to die rather than go through it. And so um these worldly comforts can blind you to the fact that suffering and trials will come, and when they do come, how are you gonna deal with it?
SPEAKER_07:That's right, that's right. Uh Candy said in the, I mean, Candy, um Angie said in the comments, she said that um uh that it makes one complacent. This is and this is another big one that that it is true that that worldly comforts make a person become complacent when it comes to spiritual matters and and closing in with God and with the Lord Jesus Christ. So that's a good one uh from the comments. Sister Angie, what do you think? I mean, uh Sister Um Mariah. What do you think?
SPEAKER_02:Um, I was thinking the same as uh Sister Angie, complacent, and it makes them uh kind of also procrastinate. A lot of the uh worldly comforts um make people feel like they have time to do X, Y, and Z and to come unto God, um, is my thinking.
SPEAKER_07:Good one, good one. Uh Sister Candy, go ahead. Did I call you already? Oh, you you were first, you were first, sorry, Candy. You said forget God. Sorry.
SPEAKER_04:I got one more thing because if if the Christian in the world, when we become a child of God, like where Beg was talking, or it was if somebody said something about complacent in the world of comfortable, so we become uncomfortable in the world when we're with God, right? That's true, versus versus yeah, not having and be uncomfortable and self-reliant. Right, it makes us see where we really need him, I believe.
SPEAKER_07:Right. Um, Brother Jeff, encourage the servant. What do you say? I think we got a good list, but what do you think, brother?
SPEAKER_01:Well, Jonathan, I'm gonna use a little bit stronger language here. I'm gonna say that the comforts of this world can make us lazy and ineffective.
SPEAKER_06:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, it can just absolutely take our witness for Christ to zero.
unknown:Right, right.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, it can just totally neutralize us where we just blend into the world, and the world sees no difference in us than what it already sees out in the world already. Right. So being great in this world isn't where we are supposed to be. We've been warned about this, we've been told about this clearly. Right. So we have no excuse. We're operating without excuse.
SPEAKER_07:Right. So, so once again, we got we got we really got an exhaustive list. Sorry if I'm not paying attention sometimes. I'm looking down to write these notes that you guys are saying so I can remember some of them. So Jeffrey mentioned uh laziness, and I had written down sluggish. It makes people sluggish. Um, it makes people, it does really make people lazy. One of my favorites is what Lisa said, which is a it reduces our dependence. We start when we have the comforts of this life, we do that at the expense of uh dependence. And so when the more we have in this world, the less we have need of God, which has come over um come up many times. Forgetting God is a big one. We forget God. We we just we sort of put him on a back burner, and and part of that is because we we treat the comforts of this world as blessings from God. And so now we think that it's God wants us to just manage our blessings. And this is not what that kind of thing is, because the blessings, if the comforts of this world were blessings in the sense that they build us up in Christ, that they build us up in God, Job would have been asking to get his stuff back rather than asking, as Michael brought up, to have his life take from taken from him. You know, and so, and I think it's interesting that Job is asking for that. It's not something he wants to do himself. It's not something he's he's not thinking like that at all. He's not thinking about taking his own life or nothing like that. But what he is thinking is that because time is short, he's he's thinking that maybe my time is up, and now I'm looking for that shade or that reward where I go in to rest. But notice he's not asking, he's not asking for his material wealth. That's not what he's asking for. If there was anything worthy in those things, that is what he would have been asking. So he shows also in his neglect of the pursuit of worldly comforts, he shows that he has an understanding of what is expected of him as a hireling or as a servant. And this is so important because so many people think that in spite of their belief in Christ, this is what people need to be pursuing. Wealth upon wealth, comfort upon comfort, thing upon thing, all that kind of stuff, as if that has any value at all. Job understands that what he lost had absolutely no value for what he wants in his heart as a servant. Um, another one that came up that was really good. Um, somebody mentioned uh it's deceiving. Uh, that's true. Um, and that we, again, somebody said we have no need of God. But the last one that I like is I think it was Mariah who brought up procrastination. This is absolutely what being comfortable can produce, especially in a person who is a Christian. Because there are many Christians, there are Christians out there who have wealth and whatever. And they will tell themselves, you know, they will talk to themselves over and over again that they need to tend to these things that are carnal. Money, things, businesses. You got you got to go run the businesses, you gotta go do this. And they they start, they stop giving the Lord the time that he expects. They stop spending time in his presence. And so what in and they start rationalizing and justifying it. Well, God gave me this, so I need to get involved with this kind of thing, but not at the expense of maintaining that relationship with him. And Christian people, one of the biggest dangers that you can ever have is rationalizing that nonsense. That's one of the biggest dangers you can have. And then lastly, I'll say if it didn't come up, worldly comforts can be a distraction. They can be a distraction for uh uh living a godly life. It can be a distraction from making use of the means of grace. It can be a distraction from fellowship, it can be a distraction from spending time with the Lord's people, it can be a distraction from all sorts of things. But it takes your heart away from service to God. And notice that everything Satan offered Christ when he tried to tempt him, when he tempted him in Luke 4, everything Satan offered him had to do with things in this life. He didn't offer him anything that was spiritual in nature. Get food when Christ was at the height of his of his hunger. I'll give you the kingdoms of this world, I'll give I'll give you all these things, all things in the world. So there's nothing good in these things. Nothing good. And what we need to do is to focus on him at all times. Why? Because that is why we are here. And Job makes that clear in verse 2 of Job 7. And so he's not disp, he's not, he's not despising or disrespecting God, or even, I would say, showing a lack of faith in that he wants to go. I think that he's showing also, and we talked about this in a couple, one of the a couple prior sessions, where we have to find the harmony between affliction and faith. You can go through hard times and have these hard feelings and thoughts and yet still be faithful, because remember, it has nothing to do with the amount of faith. It has to do with the object of your faith. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ. As long as he is the object of our faith, the amount of it doesn't matter because he is the same. Just like that guy in Mark 9, when he says, Lord, I believe.