LIVE: "Have You An Arm Like God?" (Job 40/41), Part 5/5

Job wanted answers. He wanted a hearing. And when God finally speaks out of the whirlwind, Job’s big move is not a speech, it is silence: “I will lay my hand upon my mouth.” That single turn becomes our springboard for a brutally practical conversation about humility, restraint, and what happens when we talk too much while we’re under pressure.

We dig into Job 40 to see why God’s correction is loving even when it feels intense, then we sit with Job 41 and Leviathan as a picture of strength that puts our fears and egos in their place. Along the way, we connect the dots to Romans 7:24 and the honest cry, “Who will deliver me?” because the deeper issue is not just suffering, it is the heart behind our responses. We also reflect on a Spurgeon line that nails the need beneath the noise: a great need for Christ and a great Christ for our need.

Then we bring it into today’s world: reactive speech, online bickering, getting baited, and the temptation to defend ourselves until we lose composure. We talk about guarding your heart, choosing measured words, and learning the hard balance between necessary correction and sinful escalation. If you’ve ever left a conversation thinking, I should have stayed quiet, Job’s lesson is for you.

Subscribe for the upcoming studies, share this with a friend who’s tired of comment wars, and leave a review telling us: when is staying silent the most faithful choice?

Transcript

Job Meets God And Goes Quiet

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Because when you know when we when we when we ask God for things, you know, like think about it. Job is a perfect example. He was asking and seeking God throughout the earlier chapters. And he he and he he grabbed the bull's horns and he got it. God answered. And God is like like brother um Pat said, God dealt him some some tough love, like he said, you know, and I and I believe that. But Job got his prayer answered. He wanted a hearing with the God, he wanted to order his cause before the Lord, as he said earlier. He got it. And remember, he said he wanted to order his cause. Is that what he did?

SPEAKER_06 0:46

Not no more.

unknown 0:49

No.

SPEAKER_05 0:50

No. He said, I'm gonna cover my mouth. I got nothing to say. He said, I would order my cause. And he got now he's in God's presence. And guess what? He kept his mouth shut. And what he acknowledged, what he said, I spoke once and I spoke twice. And I should have kept my mouth quiet. What Job admitted to God, what he admitted to God was that I spoke too much. That's what he admits. I think it's here in 40, and I think it's in verse or chapter 40.

SPEAKER_03 1:32

Three, two or three.

SPEAKER_05 1:34

Yeah, verse two and three. He says, Shall he that contends with the Almighty instruct him that he reproofs God, let him answer him? Job answered the Lord and said, Behold, I am vile. What shall I answer you? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Once I have spoken, but I will not answer. Yea, twice, but I will not proceed any further. And then God was like, Good. Now let me finish with you. And he God kept going on in verse 6. Then the Lord answered to Job out of the whirlwind, and he said, Gird up your loins like a man. I will demand of you to declare unto me. See, God was through. Job's Job said, I said too much, I spoke too much, now I'm going to be quiet. God said, Good. Now let me finish telling you what I got to tell you. Like a father. Like I need to make you understand this, Job. How many times do we deal with, do we encounter this? We know it in our hearts. We feel it. We take the truth of the word of God, and this serves for most of us as this backdrop in our lives, and we sort of examine the word of God through the experiences that we have. When it should be the other the other way around. Shape our experiences by what we understand about God's truth and what we understand about the Lord Himself. It's a very poignant perspective to have about these about these matters.

Reading Leviathan As Strength

SPEAKER_05 3:06

Sister Vanessa, and then Jeffrey.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Yeah, I was when I was reading this, and I got a little bit different take on some of these scriptures. Like the way I looked at this was okay, 20 um, and 41 or 42, I mean. No, we're in 41, right?

SPEAKER_05 3:26

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Okay, so it's to it's chapter 22, and it says, In his neck remaineth strength, and sorrow is turned into joy before him. And I what I get from this is if you trust in me, know who I am, because I am who I am. And he's saying, I you will remain strong, and your sorrow will be turned to joy. And then in 23, he says, the flakes of his flesh are joined together. They are firm in themselves, they cannot be moved. We can't move if God don't let us move. That's that's what I, you know, I was getting a take on that. And when he was talking to Job, it's like, you know, this is me. Believe in me, who I am, and you can be just as strong as Leviathan and be the way a Leviathan is if you trust in me and live for me.

SPEAKER_05 4:30

Right. And I I can I can see, you know, looking at these things because, you know, we can have a lot of these things. So because he's he's definitely talking about Leviathan in this in this passage. But but I think that it's good for us to look at these things in the and and to see how these how they can apply to us and our our lives in a practical sense. So I definitely can see what you're saying there. And I think that this is I think this is exactly the kind of way that we all should look at scripture and and to see how these truths are applicable in so many different ways. Because once we see a truth in the screen the scriptures, then then we can see how how experiences are consistent with the analogy, to the analogy of faith in the word of God, is what is what we would call it in theological terms, being consistent with the analogy of faith. In other words, this isn't what it's it's saying, but it is consistent with this application. We can apply it this way, and it's consistent. And if that makes any, if that if I if I said that right. But so I definitely I definitely see that. Brother Jeffrey, go ahead.

Romans 7 And Our Need For Christ

SPEAKER_04 5:49

You know, Jonathan, I think it's interesting that the book of Romans is the next book that you're gonna go to. Looking at Paul's writing, chapter 7, verse 24, he says, What a wretched man I am who will deliver me from this body that is subject to death. Thanks be to God who delivers me through Christ Jesus, our Lord. There it all is in a nutshell, brother.

SPEAKER_05 6:22

Amen, brother. Absolutely, absolutely. Brother Pat, and then Sean and Lisa.

Reactive Speech And Shared Responsibility

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Well, Jonathan, I'm I'm a I'm wondering if you will give me your perspective on this particular point that I want to bring up. I think there's a warning here against reactivism. And what I mean by that is Job was righteous before the Lord. It wasn't until his friends started making all these false accusations that he became defensive, right, and reacted to them and started saying the things he said. And I just I just want to point out that God holds the friends responsible, but he also holds Job responsible. So it's not good enough to say, well, they started it. Right. If somebody else starts it, you're still responsible for how you act and what you say, even if you didn't start the fight. And this certainly is the case with Job. He did not start this, but it got him off keel, and he said he spoke beyond his knowledge, right? Yeah, yep. Could you could you could you speak to like your your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_05 7:37

Let me I love you brought that up because so here's here's how I look at this. So you got two you got two different experiences here that we're looking at when it comes to Job. You have what caused his affliction, you know, the first cause of his affliction. We, you know, we all know that was what happened between God and Satan. And then you have what comes after, which is how all the four of the four men interpret why he was in that situation. But what God is dealing with, to your point, Pat, what God is dealing with is not what happened before, because he he knows. He always he was there. But what God is dealing with with Job is Job's responses to his friend to these to these four people. That's what God is dealing with. Job's issue came in, his issue with God, I should say, because the issues with with the men with Job is different than the issue God had with Job. They were debating over why Job became afflicted. All four of them. You know? But God is dealing with Job because of his responses to them. So now let's

Getting Dragged Into Other People’s Sin

SPEAKER_05 9:06

look at that. Let's look at this, let's look at this in in a current context, which all of us here will can can relate to. How many of you have been in a discussion? Like in one of these other chat groups, these lives, where people are just ripping each other's heads off. How many of you after getting engaged, getting caught up in these discussions and responding to things, like you may have started out, hey, I'm gonna make my point, it's gonna be a good one, it's gonna be solid, and but by the time it's over, you're regretting that you let them get under your skin. How many of you have been in that situation? Let me tell you something. I know I have, and I see a lot of you saying that you have. This is what this is what got Job into trouble. It wasn't about him being wrong. It was about he allowed these men to get under his skin, and it got him in trouble with the Lord. It got him in trouble with the Lord. Job's righteousness, his integrity, remained intact. God doesn't get God is not mad at Job and is saying, hey Job, I'm gonna take away your salvation. I'm not gonna be in my, I'm not gonna have a relationship with you anymore, I'm not gonna talk to you anymore, we're not gonna be, we're not gonna, you know, have our relationship the way it was. No, God is dealing with Job because of his responses to the abuse of his friends, and he began to defend himself. And none of these things had anything to do, none of what these guys said, none of them. Elihu, Zophar, none of them, none of what they said explained why Job was being afflicted. They got that wrong, and that's what they were seeking to answer. But God is correcting Job for his responses, for his responses, and the greater part of those responses that God that Job made, Job made to God directly. And this is why I think he was in more trouble than what he was in, because what he spoke, he spoke in honestly in you know, being honest about how he felt toward God. But God is saying, look, you may have been honest, but you were honestly wrong. And I need to set you straight something. I need to make you under understand these things. And so this is where we, you know, where we get to. So I'm not sure if that answers the question, Pat, but I I do believe that that is, you know, is it's a good question, and I think that the reality is he he ends up going too far in his assessment of his own situation and how he responded to you know in the presence of these other guys. So it's it's really it's really uh interesting.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Do you feel that there's do you feel there's maybe a lesson to be learned about don't you could be on track in your life. You could be going about your life, going through whatever you're going through. Somebody else can come along or a group of people, they can actually drag you into their sin.

SPEAKER_05 12:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 12:46

And you we have to be careful of that because Job didn't want to get into this with him. Job was probably helping, hoping that these, oh, my friends are here. They're gonna come encourage me. You know, they're gonna come restore me. Job wasn't asking for this for, but they dragged him into his stuff, into their stuff.

SPEAKER_05 13:03

Right. That's what I think. That's exactly what I think happened. I think he got, I think he got like my father used to say before he passed, he used to always say, Yeah, you got caught up. You got caught up. That's that's what my father used to always say. When you, when you when you messed up, he says you got caught up. And that's what Job did. He got, he got, he got caught up in the snare, and they got him into a situation which providentially, unbeknownst to them, ended up improving Job's relationship with God. You know, but see, that's how that's the goodness of the Lord. And that's what that's what Paul means when he talks about all things work together for the good of those who are called according, excuse me, according to his purpose. Even when it looks bad. Like I gotta imagine, Job is probably thinking, now, I haven't turned my back on God at all. I've stayed faithful. And now he's dealing with God, you know, you know, trying to, you know, correcting him. But Job is like, listen, I mean, I think his thing is like, hey, he's talking to me at least. I'll take the beating. Because it's better than his silence. It's better than his silence. And and and so, but it's like it's like I said, and this is I think there's one good lesson, Brother Pat, that we can learn, learn out of here is exactly what I'm talking about earlier when I brought up the situation with all of us being in these other conversations. You know, these people, they will get us to quote unquote, as we used to say when I was younger, lose our faces. In other words, we forget who we are and we become one of them. Don't be one of them. Because they want to take you down. They want you, they want to break that relationship that they that you have with the Lord, whether they realize it or not. But they want to do they want to destroy your character and render you ineffectual in the cause of God and truth. This is what they want to do, Sister Sean, Lisa, and then Meg.

SPEAKER_06 15:15

Oh, yeah, I've been uh looking at Spurgeon a lot, and he had a quote that said, I have a great need for Christ, and I have a great Christ for my need. And I think that Joe began to forget that. I think that you know, he began to fall into despair, and that despair is like, well, is my need too big to be met? And so God began to show him that nothing is too big, in fact. Right. And that I'm I'm bigger than anything.

unknown 15:41

Right.

SPEAKER_06 15:41

And uh and I create big things. Right. And so I I think that I think he's just showing

Silence Versus Measured Words

SPEAKER_06 15:49

Job that he's sufficient, and I'm just ready for 42.

SPEAKER_05 15:55

Amen, sister, sister Lisa and then me.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Wow. Well, this has been really a good, a good lesson, a lot to reflect on here. You know, like what you were talking about just a little bit ago, you know, that we get dragged in, you know, or or was it brother Pat that brought that up that you know, Job got himself into into trouble in because of how he was responding to those who were coming at him.

SPEAKER_05 16:25

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

And it was, you know, it's a great, it's a great reminder to us that the Lord sees, and it there's a verse that says, the Lord will fight for you. You only have to be silent.

SPEAKER_05 16:42

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

I think about again Christ when they were coming at him and he just stayed quiet. I mean, this is a lesson that's a hard one. It's gonna be probably my hardest lesson ever. There have been times when I know that the Holy Spirit was upon me and allowed me to my lips to stay closed because it it it couldn't have been me. I just know that 100%. And so I pray every day that he's gonna do that more and more for me. And and maybe I will, you know, I will have eventually a heart like his so I can, you know, I I know like we can't do anything without him, but right, right. But anyway, I I that's what I'm taking away. Just I I need to be quiet. And God saw, and if I feel like it's unjust or it's wrong, God knows. And and He's the one I need to worry about. So thank you for all the the comments and and and stuff. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 17:55

And see the thing is, and and see the thing is, Sister Lisa, and everybody, it's like it, it, it, you know, I don't say these things because I think that you necessarily always need to stay silent. But it's really about composure when you do speak.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

I probably need to stay silent though, Jonathan. I personally, I probably need to stay. Yeah, no, no, I get it.

SPEAKER_05 18:20

I get it. I get it. And sister, let me tell you, I'm in the same camp with you. I'm in the same camp. You know, uh I I I that guilt is all over me. And and and the thing is we we have to manage our own souls. We have to we have to, I think it was Meg that wrote in the comments, we have to guard our own hearts. And we really have to do that. And sometimes it requires absolute silence because of what the alternative might be if the faucet of our mouth is opened up. If we open up that faucet, we end up going too far. And so it's important for us to be composed, whether that be with silent or whether that be with measured words. You know, because here's the thing sometimes silence can be a sin. Sometimes silence can be a sin when you when something that needs to be said and you neglect to say it. Somebody says something that is wrong, it needs to be corrected. You know, so it's constantly, it we're constantly dealing with vigilance over how we conduct ourselves as a representative of the Lord. So we need to know when to be quiet, we need to know when to speak, and we need to know that when we speak, we need to have composed, godly speech. And we need to not say more than what is required. This is what happens. No, no one of us should ever be caught again in these bickering matches with people. Especially lit listening to what we what we're talking about right now. We we should not be. It should not be. We have to restrain ourselves from this this kind of speech because it doesn't profit anybody anything. And all we're doing is feeding someone's appetite to see us fail or fall so that they can say like what they say these days, I cook that person. All that nonsense. I think it's stupid, but this is what people say. This is this is the lingo today. You know, and so things need to be very measured in how we how we compose ourselves. Sister May, go ahead.

Walking In The Spirit Unoffendable

SPEAKER_03 20:51

I just want to say a couple of things. First Corinthians chapter 3, verse 18 and 19. It says, Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise. For the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, for it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And so, you know, I I gotta admit, there's one time, and I I always pray about getting in my flesh before I go on a live, but this one time I lost it on this Trinetheus guy, and I had to get off the live. So I I got off, I knew what I had to do, and I just started to pray and talking to the Lord, and he revealed something to me, and it was when you walk in the flesh, you will always be offended, but when you walk in the spirit, the spirit is unoffendable because it this is when you're walking in the spirit, it's the spirit of truth, it's the worshipper that God seeks, and so there's there's no folly in. When we walk in the spirit. And so we have to understand that the flesh, it just acts, it doesn't think.

unknown 22:08

Right.

SPEAKER_03 22:08

But the spirit causes you to yield because we yield to the spirit.

SPEAKER_05 22:13

Right. Right. And that's and that's that's that's a wise observation, uh, sister, because I mean, that like that same guy. I mean, he, you know, he put he posted some pictures with me with devil's horns and and all this kind of stuff, and calling me a false all these little videos, and then this guy, Jim Van Sage, has a nerve to call me ignorant. And I was like, I'm telling you, like, for a minute, I was ready to go. I was I was ready to go all in on this guy. And, you know, and and I was tempted to tell you what I wanted to say, but I won't do that because that would be violating the very thing I'm trying to admonish you guys against. But, you know, I let it go. I just let it go. This dude called me ignorant, and I just let it go. I'm not gonna be baited. You know, because I know how easy it is for me to get baited. Because I like to fight, like most of us do. I like to fight. And this is this is a a a sort of a thorn a thorn for me.

Ambassadors For Christ Under Pressure

SPEAKER_05 23:21

You know, so when I see people who I feel are incompetent call me ignorant, it's a problem for me. But I had to restrain myself. I had to hold back my tongue. You know, same thing with Trinetheus, same thing with these other people that a lot of us know. I I I don't, you know, I I have I have never heard I never sat through a session with any of these people. And yet I find myself getting, you know, reeled in. But I I I couldn't let it, I couldn't, I had to restrain myself. And so I'm telling you guys the same thing. Don't let them get you. Because they want to damage your reputation before God. And that's the word that's the one that matters above all things. Your reputation before the Lord. Because He sees you. He sees you. And when that heat starts boiling up in your heart, you're going to be tempted and it's going to be very difficult to strengthen to restrain. And you have basically a fraction of a second to recognize it and to respond in a proper way or an improper way. And you have to be careful because we do not want to ruin the what God is working, because we have to understand that we are his ambassadors. And if you know what an ambassador is, in our country, an ambassador represents the country. Represents our country, represents the president. So when you go through speaking to those other nations, a holy nation. We're Christ's kingdom, we're his body, we're his temple. So we have to manage ourselves as needed. Let someone look at our Lord differently than they ought to because of our behavior. Don't let it be your fault that someone views our Lord differently than they ought to. Even though it may not be your your intention, shield yourself from making this mistake. It happens, it's happened to us all, it's happened to me. I'm no different. I'm preaching to myself as much as you. So let's be careful with that. Let's learn the lesson that Job here himself is learning.

SPEAKER_03 25:50

If God appears to us out of a whirlwind, we're all in trouble.

SPEAKER_05 25:53

We're all in trouble. We're all in trouble. We are absolutely all in trouble. So that being said, be provoked and be persuaded.

SPEAKER_06 26:07

Amen.

SPEAKER_05 26:08

Brother Jeffrey, you mind closing us out.

Closing Prayer And Travel Plans

SPEAKER_04 26:13

Not at all. Jonathan, let me take a brief moment to say well done tonight, and uh, we look forward to uh wrapping this up with uh chapter 42, hopefully tomorrow night. But uh for those of you who are still online or hear my voice or are in the scroll and everything, be thinking about getting your reservations made and in place for being here uh in about three months. In fact, three months from today, we'll be wrapping things up. You guys will be heading home on the 7th of August. So be looking at getting reservations made if you haven't already, be thinking about uh time off that you're gonna need. If there's anything, uh questions that you have, Joni and I can answer, please reach out to us. Uh Megan, let's her heart, she has uh hotel information. Contact her, she'll share that with you. And uh, if you aren't planning to be here, be thinking about getting those plans in place, okay. Father, we thank you tonight for this incredible study that we have had. We thank you for what you have shown to Job. We thank you that you have corrected him strongly, but with love. You have told him and reminded him who you are. And that in spite of his verbal errors and uh just plain wrong thinking, you still love him, you accepted him, and you blessed him. But nevertheless, he got a reminder that you are God of all, Lord of all, and now he moves forward in his life being reaffirmed in that. Well, Father, we pray that we, as your children, through Christ Jesus, would be reaffirmed in that, that we would hold our tongue when we need to, as Jonathan said. That we need to speak when we need to. But when we do need to speak, let us speak every word that's needed, and not one more. Thank you for your presence here tonight. Thank you for each and everyone who came by, stopped by, everyone who contributed this evening. Lord, it's been an awesome evening. We thank you for it. We look forward to moving into the book of Romans and studying what you have written there through the Apostle Paul, your servant, and how it's going to apply to our lives. Thank you for this time this evening. Thank you for everyone here. We give you praise, glory, and honor, and thanks in Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_05 28:41

Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Brother Jeffrey. Appreciate that. Appreciate

One Chapter Left And What’s Next

SPEAKER_05 28:47

that. So we got everybody, listen, we've been on this boat since November, and we got one chapter to go and we're done. One chapter to go on Job. And I think it's a it's I think it's a significant milestone and a tremendous accomplishment for us all to go through this together the way we the way we have done so. And I'm looking forward to many more. We did Galatians and we did we did we're finishing up Job. I should be done in the next day or so with Job. The next day I think we'll be done with Job. I'm going to start Romans. And after having a conversation with Pat and a few other conversations, I decided that I'm going to add revelation to part of this as well. So the way I'm going to do it, I'm going to do during the week, I'm going to do Job, and I normally have a topical discussion that I have on the weekend, like on Sunday or Saturday. It hasn't been as much on Saturday, but usually on Sunday night, I do something topical. So I'm now going to make that topical discussion be Revelation. So I'm going to go, I'm going to do the same type of approach that I have for Job with Romans and with Revelation. Revelation is just going to be on the weekend. So whatever, whatever message I do, if I do, you know, I mean, I can do one to four depending on how things are going with my wife and I, but definitely, minimally, I'm going to do Revelation on Sunday night. If I get, if I'm able to do more, I will add Saturday and Saturday morning. But anyway, so we're going to be going through Revelation and Romans. And I'm going to ask you in advance to bear with me a little bit because I'm going to be a little stricter on how we manage the speaking time in between because I know these both of these books together are going to be very let's just say I believe they're going to elicit a lot of response and emotion and things like this. So it's a these are difficult books to deal with and and very difficult. So I want you to be prepared to deal with me if I might be a little short at times in order to keep things moving, but I don't want to I don't want to pass glaze over things. So I don't I never want to be accused of not dealing with something, you know, that that's tough to deal with. So I plan to deal with everything. But but but I will try to like manage it so that we can get to the meat of these matters and whatever. But anyway, it should be fun. So I'm speaking I'm sort of blackberry.

SPEAKER_03 31:29

Pardon me. I said, you know what the good news is?

SPEAKER_05 31:32

What's that?

SPEAKER_03 31:33

Is that we have all been here through this for 42 chapters since November in Job. Yep. So we can hang. You know, I think that's the good news. I'm so excited to go through these. So it's just gonna be another milestone in our journey together. And I just I'm really excited. I I really think that Job is such an accomplishment. I mean, we have steadily been at this since November, and glory to God for it all. So we really appreciate you, Jonathan, and that you take the preparation that you do. It it really means a lot because we're preparing to.

SPEAKER_05 32:14

I know. I know. That's the danger. I'm getting scared now.

SPEAKER_03 32:18

I just got R.T. Sproul's book about Romans. He did it, The Just Shall Live by Faith. So I'm gonna be reading that along with Romans. So it's gonna be good. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_05 32:26

I never I didn't I didn't know about that book. Send me the name title of that book because I didn't I I read I didn't know we had the book on Romans, but that's that's that's new to me. So I haven't I haven't I haven't seen that. So send me the title of that one. And also what I'm gonna try to do, I'm gonna try to more the history things up there, you know, post more history things, but also I'm gonna try to I'm gonna start recommending some books for people. So I'm gonna I'm gonna review a book, you know, but I'm only gonna review things and post stuff that I have actually read. So because I don't like recommending things that I haven't read, because sometimes you can read something and go like, oh my gosh, I can't believe this is in here, and then you just toss it. So I'm gonna share some uh book reviews for all of you guys so that you can, you know, you might get so you can get an idea of where I've come from with some of the ideas and teachings that I have, what's fueled my understanding, and and hopefully it'll be a blessing to you and you will continue to increase your studies and advance far beyond me. So but anyway, so after this, after this next chapter of Job, we'll be doing, I'll be tackling Romans and Revelation simultaneously, but you're gonna get rip Romans during the week, and on the weekend, minimally Sunday night, you're gonna get we're gonna do Revelation. So look forward to that. So, anyway, that's all there is for tonight, folks. Have a great night. May God bless you all. Jeffrey, thank you for the prayer, and everybody else, thank you for the constant, faithful engagement. God bless you all. Have a great night tonight. Look forward to the next study.

SPEAKER_02 34:02

All right, good night, y'all. God bless.

SPEAKER_04 34:05

Bye.