"Times Are Not Hidden From The Almighty" (Job 24:1-12), Part 2/5

Cutting off a Christian friend over an election sounds normal now, and that should scare us. We talk plainly about how political loyalty can become spiritual idolatry, how it distracts us from Christ, and why the church loses its witness when we treat brothers and sisters like enemies over a vote. 

From there, we open Job 24 and read it like it was written for modern ears. Job’s picture of oppression is detailed and unsettling: the vulnerable pushed to the edge, workers producing wealth they never get to enjoy, and cruelty that keeps people exposed and desperate. We connect those verses to real life economic pressure, from high credit card interest to the way rising prices train households to accept less while working more. If you’ve ever felt the squeeze and wondered why the system never “goes back,” you’ll recognize the pattern Job describes. 

We also push toward hope and clarity. Scripture warns that hoarded wealth and withheld wages cry out to God (James 5), and Jesus redirects our hearts toward treasure in heaven (Matthew 6). We remind each other that the wicked will still give an account, money makes a terrible god, and Christ is the only One truly working in our interest. If this challenged you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review. What part hit closest to home?

Transcript

Unity Over Politics

SPEAKER_02 0:00

And take, and take until there's nothing left to take. But God is going to show these people who's really on the throne. He's going to show them all. And we're going to find out. You know, and be and and and he's going to take them to task. And a lot of us are going to be are going to be wondering how we didn't see it. If you choose a political office candidate over your brother or sister in Christ, you are an idiot. If you would fight and disown your brother or sister in Christ because of a difference of opinion as to who they are voting for, you are a first-rate idiot. That's what you are. If you are one of those people who cut off your friendship with somebody because they either, because they like Trump or because they like Obama or because they liked Biden and because they didn't like this person or that person, if you are willing to end a relationship with your Christian brother or sister, you are a fool. That should never happen. Should never happen. And yet, this is what has been going on in the last 10 years. Like nothing I've ever seen. It's amazing. The devil got people, Christians, taking their minds off of Christ and off the unity of the church, and started getting them on sides of people in this world as if they're going to give them anything. Job knew this. Listen to what he says in Job 24. It just goes to show you that nothing has changed. Nothing has changed. He says, he continues from verse 4, where he ended by saying, They turn the needy out of the way, the poor of the earth hide themselves together. And then in verse 5, he goes on to say, Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work, rising betimes for a prey. In other words, they wake up to destroy. The wilderness yields food for them and for their children. They reap every one his corn in the field, and they gather the vintage of the wicked. They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold. They are wet in the showers of the mountains and embrace the rock for lack of shelter. So, what is Joel saying? He's saying that the condition of the oppressed is vividly here described. He's describing it vividly here. And he says, like wild creatures, they are driven into harsh and desolate places in order to survive. This is what the weak and the infirm, the exploited people are dealing with. Nakedness, no clothing, cold, treated as prey, exploited by the rich and powerful and the oppressors of this age. He goes on by pointing out that they labor early and they endured, meaning the poor. They labor early, they endure hardship only to just make a living barely, to just get by. As time goes on, you work more and more and more, you work harder and harder and harder, harder, to only gain less and less and less from it. Just to barely make it, which is how they want you to be. And here's one thing that happens when people get in this situation. They curse God. They curse him. This is why David says, Don't give me riches or I'll forget God. Don't give me poverty or I will curse him. Give me neither. Show me contentment and how to live contently. Which so few people can do. What the world offers is never enough. And it will never, ever, ever satisfy. You will never be satisfied by what the world can offer you. Never. I don't care how many homes you have, how much money you have, how many cars you have, how many friends you have, how little health problems you have, nothing in this life will satisfy. And once you get something and you feel satisfied by it, it won't take long before it becomes old news. You become bored. You need something else to fulfill. Yet the wicked benefit from all of their toil. In other words, the wicked benefit from all of the toil of the weak and the and the powerless. Give them enough to want to go work, give them enough to feel that they can obtain things, better, a better lifestyle than what they have right now, but they only want you to go do all that you're doing so that you can create more for yourself that they can take from you. Make no mistake about it. Make no mistake about it. Christians, examine your own lives. I am certain that what I'm saying now has got to hit home with everyone on some level. Unless you happen to be a billionaire. But rest assured, we're gonna you you will feel the impact of what these people do. Job is giving us a blueprint of what they do. And he's pointing out here in these verses that the poor are always left exposed. Without clothing, without shelter, without protection from the elements. And they do this to us by making you believe that it's for your own good. That's the goofy part. They condition you to believe that their exploitation of you is good and beneficial to you. And we fall for it, hook lining sinkers. We fall for it. But they're suffering. Suffering of the weak, the fatherless, the poor. They're suffering. It's not accidental, but it is the direct, deliberate result of being exploited and being neglected and being cut off. And they do these things in crazy ways that people don't even pay attention to. I encourage every one of you who makes an average living. If you have a credit card, I guarantee you that most of you will have a credit card that will be charging you somewhere between 17% and 25% or higher. And they make you believe that you are doing something because you have the card while they're taking away every dime you make by charging you exorbitant usury or interest. They are ripping you all off. They're ripping us all off and trying to make it seem as though it is to our benefit that it happens. And I'm bringing up some worldly situations, real worldly situations, because Job was talking about real worldly things. I don't know about any of you. But for the first time, I filled up my wife's car and it cost almost$92. And I can tell you right now, once they get you used to doing something or used to paying something, they're never going to go back to what it was. Never. Never start making adjustments for your life. Because when they get you paying these high prices for things, and when they get you to accept that all this stuff that they're doing that is wicked and evil, and they get you to accept it, they're never gonna go back because they've already conditioned you and trained you to accept it. And you're gonna be too you're gonna you're never gonna want to admit that you were wrong about decisions that we made. But regardless, whoever is running things, they're going to do the same things. They're going to do the same things. This shows a world where injustice leaves the vulnerable in extreme distress. And the system is designed to increase the number of those who are who become vulnerable. And so, people, you're gonna get what you've been asking for. Job knows these things, and it's unbelievable how far back thousands of years we have to go, and we still see the same things happening in our day-to-day. Verse 9. Verse 9. They pluck the fatherless from the breast. They take a pledge of the poor. They cause him to go naked without clothing. He's saying this again. They take away the sheath from the hungry, which make oil within their walls, and tread their wine presses, and suffer thirst. Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded cries out, yet God lays not folly to them. Look what he's saying. Like, he's talking about, like, for an example, he's talking about sweatshops. This is what he's talking about. They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheep from the hungry, which make oil within their walls and tread their wine presses, and they suffer thirst. This is what he's talking about. He's talking about how cruelty always has a way of reaching a whole new level, a whole new height in the treatment of those who are defenseless, those who are not able to legislate, let alone read legislation or understand it. And he says that even the infants are taken away from security. Look what it says. They pluck the fatherless from the breast. Why? To put them to work. Why? So they can exploit them and take away everything they're working for. Job is talking about it. Even the infants are taken away from security. The poor are stripped of what little they possess. Those who labor in producing goods are denied the benefit of being able to benefit from them. They want you to go work in their wine presses. They want you to go work within their walls, making oil while you suffer thirst working for them. And there's no benefit for you. You can't eat, but you have to work so that they can eat fat. This is what's this is what this is what happens. I'm just telling you what the word of God says. It's clear. Go look at this, it's amazing. And what Job is showing here is that the cries of the suffering rise from both the city and the field. Yet judgment does not immediately follow. And what Job is pointing out is that God recognizes all these things that are happening. And what Job is pointing out, don't you worry. God is going to deal with it. This is his whole point. God is going to deal with it. Even though the difficulty here continues to become more and more in death. The wicked seem to escape punishment, while the afflicted cry out with visible belief, visible relief. And Job, here's what Job understands. He's saying, listen, look what happened to me. I was wealthy. I had ten children, and they were wealthy. I offered sacrifices for my children. I had businesses. I had servants. I was a man of round of renown. I was a man about the town. I was a man who was known for having wisdom and for educating and exhorting and commissioning things. Job was a wealthy man, but he was a righteous man at the same time. And he's saying, look at what happened to me. Think what Job is pointing out is that if this has happens, if this has happened to me, look at what can happen to those who don't have what I have. When God takes away from them even that which they do not have. Job knows that. And he's telling us, thousands of years later, not to worry. God will vindicate his people. He will vindicate them. Brother Jeffrey, your thoughts.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Wow, you've given us a lot here to ponder tonight, Jonathan. But one of the things, uh thoughts that keeps coming back to me is the fact that the wicked and the wealthy, uh, the wicked that get wealthy by being wicked will one day stand before God and give an account. That's what g brings me comfort. Yes, they are doing what you are describing to a T. That is what they're doing. But what they do will eventually, Jonathan, do them in because of the fact that it controls them when they get to that point, instead of them controlling it. The money becomes their God. Right. Okay? They bow down to it, they worship it, they pursue it instead of God, and it becomes their God. And of course, when you die, well, how much of that money do you take with you? None. You go out of this world the same way you came in. And so they will stand before God with nothing and give an account of what they'd done. God will ask them, okay, you were blessed with all of this. What did you do with it? Well, Lord, I bought me this and this and this and started this business and made all this money. What'd you do to help somebody, God says? And their answer is like, uh Yeah. Right. So there is the point. But for us, Jonathan, let's keep our eyes, our focus, and our attention on him. Living for him. What we have right now may not be much compared to what others have, but what we have, use it for his glory. Amen, brother. And see what he has to do with that. Okay. Love you, man.

SPEAKER_02 18:06

Sister Vanessa, what are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_03 18:09

Well, I'm just thinking it's just like today. I think Joe is lamenting over the wicked prospering and that the innocent suffer. And that's the same thing that's happening today. The exact same thing. The innocent suffer and the rich get richer. And they can't even share their wealth with the poor. And that's what we should be doing, you know, pray uh helping the poor, because there are people out there that have no choice but to be on the streets, or I'm not talking about drug addicts and all that. That's their own fault. But there are people out there that have children that are starving because there's no way for them to feed their children because of the prices and stuff that's happening today. So that's my two cents.

SPEAKER_02 19:01

Absolutely. What do you thought? What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_04 19:07

Oh, my thoughts are lots of thoughts right now. Uh-oh. Where do you want me to start? You want me to start with the good thoughts or what I've read about the bad things and in going on?

SPEAKER_02 19:18

Whatever it is, just keep whatever it is, just keep it short.

SPEAKER_04 19:21

It's the misuse of riches that I found in James of what he says, and I think it goes good with what Job is saying about the rich people, but this is their destiny. He says, Come on, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted, and your garments have become motheaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted, and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure. Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields and which has been withheld by you cries out against you, and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord Saba. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man. He does not resist you. So that's exactly what Job is talking about. And then we also know that he tells us to store our treasures up in heaven. Where moth does not hold, let me get it right here. I don't want to misquote. So it's actually found in Matthew 6 21 store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal. Where your treasure is, your heart will also be. I want to jump back to Isaiah 33:6, though, because this is beautiful. Says, and he will be their stability of your times, a wealth of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the Lord is his treasure. Then I'm going to jump back to 1921 in Matthew. Jesus said to him, If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. Don't be associated. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not of ourselves. So I'm sorry that I went too too long.

SPEAKER_02 21:32

Sister, no, no, no. Let me tell you something right now. Let me tell you something right now. All the time that we've been here together, to me, that has been your best response to what whatever we're talking about that I've heard yet. The application, you know, because bringing those verses out that you brought out shows something significant. That you were paying attention to what we're talking about here. And you made the exact and the most appropriate application from scripture. And it's the best one I've ever heard you do. God's word.

SPEAKER_04 22:13

Can I bring one more thing to you?

SPEAKER_02 22:15

Go ahead. You're on a roll now. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_04 22:17

It's in Deuteronomy. And 33. I had it pulled up. Hold on. 33. Oh, wait a minute. Is it 33? Yeah, 33. Deuteronomy 33. All right, come on. 3314 says, and with the choice yield of the sun, and with the choice produced of the months, and with the best things of the ancient mountains, and with the choice things of the everlasting hill, and with the choice things of the earth and its fullness, and the favor of him who dwelt in the bush, let it come to the head of Joseph, and to the crown of the head of the distinguished among his brother. Here's where it gets good. As the firstborn of his ox, majesty is his, and his horns are the horns of the wild ox. With them he will push the peoples at all once to the ends of the earth. And those are the ten thousand of Ephraim, and those are the ten thousand of Manasseh. But O Zebulun Zebulun, he said, Rejoice in your going forth in Ishkar to in your tents. They will call peoples to the mountains. They will there they will offer righteous sacrifices, for they will draw out the abundance of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand. That's what Job's talking about. These people are doing.

Comparing Scripture With Scripture

SPEAKER_02 23:46

That's exactly the truth here. That's exactly what's been talked about here. All right. Good work. Excellent work on that one, Candy. Excellent work. Sister Mariah, your thoughts.

SPEAKER_00 24:09

Well, my thoughts are, you know, um previous chapters, two chapters back, um, Job's friends sat there and told him how he was taking from the the poor and the fatherless and, you know, these uh all of these things. But it sounds like he has more heart and compassion for what it is that's truly going on in itself, more than his friends ever uh displayed, in my opinion, that is. So I just find it ironic that we could really see Job's heart and where it has always been. And um now I think that he can even understand even more so uh those that are in poverty and where they're coming from and how they may feel uh now that he's in this position.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

Right, right. You know, there's a brother, somebody in the in the comments, that made a comment that I was gonna comment on. And he goes, speaking about Candy's reading the scriptures, and he goes, he's basically like saying, like, what's the big deal? She just read scripture. See, this is this is what I'm talking about. This is what Christians always do. You know, now I was gonna say some some some harsh words, but as many of you know, I have to try to like restrain myself. And I it it takes an extra effort for me to restrain myself when people say things like this. But he asked the question, what is she doing? She just read scripture. Now, if she made a comment, if she made, if Candy said all she that all she um if all she did was talk back to me and and say something, then people will go, where's the scripture for that? Where's the support for that? See, this is what Christians always do. They always try to find something wrong with something that's true. And it's and it's so it is so exhausting that these people get on here and they say these, they say these things.

SPEAKER_04 26:10

Brother Jonathan.

SPEAKER_02 26:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:13

Brother, those who have ears, they hear. Those who don't, they won't.

SPEAKER_02 26:17

I know. Yeah, I know. No, but it's but no, but listen, what you did was dead on. That's what we're supposed to do. But you always get some you know, you always you always get people that all they want to do is just tear everything down. It's it's is it's I don't understand. And he probably thought that was actions. He probably thought that was a deep comment. What did she do? She just read the scripture. Well, if she didn't read the scripture, you'd be accused of not using scripture and supporting anything you're saying. It's the same thing with me. People people will say the same thing to me. If I don't, if I don't cite scripture, they start accusing me of not using the scripture. And if I cite scripture, they start telling me the you know something opposite. And it's just it's just crazy. So, sister, you and everybody, keep doing what you're doing because because the the spiritual sophistication is growing in all of us. And continue to do that. Um, because when you're able to listen to what we're talking about or read something here in the scripture, and then find commensurate passages that that augment or or or supplement or complement what we're saying, that's what we're supposed to do. That is what is called comparing scripture with scripture. That is what rightly dividing the word of truth really means. It's talking about. And this is what the first rule of biblical hermeneutics is: let the scripture interpret itself. So when this guy comes in here, talk coming in here talking about, well, what did she do? All she did was just read the Bible, just read the scriptures. That's what she's supposed to do.

SPEAKER_04 28:01

That's what she's supposed to do. And described God's word behind God's word.

SPEAKER_02 28:06

That's alright. That's all right.

SPEAKER_04 28:07

So like it, love it, or leave it, brother. Try it sometime. You might hear something.

Rebels Against Light And Secret Deeds

Church Blind Spots And Final Thoughts

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Don't don't don't worry about it, sister. We'll let it we'll let it go. We'll let it go. This is what people do. That's why God gave me the blessed benefit of a mute button. And uh, it just gets on my nerves. Job goes on in 24, verse 13. And he says, They are those that rebel against the light. They do not know the ways thereof, nor do they abide in the paths thereof. The murderer, rising with the light, kills the poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief. The eye also of the adulterer waits for the twilight, saying, No eye will see me. What do we call that? The walk of shame. You guys know what I'm talking about, and disguises his face so nobody can see him. In the dark, they dig through houses which they had marked for themselves in the daytime. For they do not, for or I mean, in the daytime, they know not the light. For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death. Can you imagine morning, the morning being like the shadow of death? If one know them, they are in terrors of the shadow of death. So, what is Joel talking about here? He's saying, look, he's he he's he's showing that the wicked and what they do are even more exposed. And he describes them as rebels against the light. Rebels against the light, both natural conscience and revealed truth. In other words, they have no light within and they have no light without. They are consumed with doing dark deeds, which they are driven to do because their hearts are foolish and darkened as well. This is what he's talking about. Their deeds, they plan their deeds in secret, and they are executed at night or under the cover of darkness, because they don't want anybody to know what they're doing. They want to avoid detection. We need to understand that what the rich and powerful and the oppressors in this world, what they do, they do secretly. They do secretly. We're not the first ones to be apprised of an entity that we refer to under the terms Illuminati. Job is talking about this. I'm not going down some kind of Illuminati rabbit hole, but what I'm saying is he's given us a vivid description of how they function and operate. It is fully um um done under the cover of darkness. It is hidden, and even in what they put out there in the open, is shrouded in mystery and nonsense that people, most of us, would never understand. And they're telling us to root for them because whatever it is they're doing is for our benefit. And like Floyd says, it's deceptive, it's deceptive. They plan everything they do in secret, and then they execute it in darkness when no one else can see it. And before you know it, it's upon you, and you're wondering what happened. Light, or or let me go back to this for a second. So, light, which is usually meant to be a guide, because it becomes their fear. You know why? Because they don't want to be exposed. That's what the light does. And this is why people hate God, and this is why they really hate God in Christ, because he exposes the evil deeds of darkness. And these people, they like violence, they like stealing, and they love adultery, and they are carried about with every form of subtlety and craft and concealment that is imaginable. And this is the tactics, tactic of the devil himself. It's his tactics that we are not supposed to be ignorant of, and we find ourselves siding with those folks who do it, and we act as though they are working in our interest. Let me tell you one thing no one is acting in our interest other than Christ. No one, no one, no politician, no government, no business leader, none of these people are working in the interests of the people, especially if you consider yourself a Christian. They want nothing, nothing from you. They do not care about us. And Christians, we get in the way of everyone's agenda. We get in the way of everyone's agenda because God is always working in our defense and is always preserving us no matter how bad circumstances in this world seem to prevail in our eyes. God has it all ready to be dealt with at an appointed time that He has set forth. Sin has a reservation for its destruction and its coming. And it's not going to be just the sin, but it's going to be the perpetrators of that sin. He's going to defend, he's going to destroy them both, the sin and the sinner. The deceived and the deceiver, as we read earlier, as Meg brought up the other day. Um, Sister Lisa and then Candy.

SPEAKER_05 34:56

Wow. Um I it was just occurring to me again that Job is speaking these truths to his friends who have before basically said the same thing in accusation to him. And in this way, I mean, Job he is letting them know he understands, he understands what I don't even know how to word this. I was just thinking that everything that they were accusing him of are like the deceptive things that um that is going on in our church in the church today. For instance, um, like you just said, people claiming the name Christ who are supporting um war. Um