FBT Daily Devotional: Job 34:1-35:8

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Okay. So if everyone could mute and then we'll go ahead and begin. So we're starting off um with um chapter 34. And so as we've seen throughout the most, the majority of the book of Job, it's pretty much just been Job and his three friends, um, just kind of going back and forth, back and forth. And when we get to this point of the book, one thing that I find interesting is um, and I mentioned this last week, it was that earlier on in the book, Job ends up asking um for someone to be a mediator, for someone to come in on his behalf. And out the clear blue sky, Elihu um appears. Um, so I just wanted to kind of break down, because you know, everything I try to dissect everything, especially when we're, you know, I'm exhorting and try to dissect everything that comes along with, you know, with the book. So everybody's names, etc., etc. So I want to give a description of what Elihu means, like just the actual Hebrew um breaking down of it. The name Elihu means my God is he or he is my God. Um, so he seems like he is the youngest of all of them. And out of respect, he sat back and he listened to everybody's argument. Um, he heard Job, he heard all three of his friends, and once he heard enough, he made his assertion. Um, not to skip too far ahead, but one thing I do want to mention about Elihu is that um, spoil alert, you know, God is going to show up in himself and talk to everybody involved. But interestingly enough, Elihu is not um reprimanded as Job's friends were. When Job, when uh when God is defending Job, he does not mention Elihu. So I felt like that was really interesting. And in my, I looked up a lot of different ways of why that was. But ultimately, the the reason that sat the best with me in my spirit was that he was the closest to being right. He he didn't necessarily kind of blame Job for his suffering, but he helped, he blamed Job for the posture that he ended up taking as a result of it. And it's not even necessarily like as I like read through it and read through it, it seems like more so Job was handling his suffering a bit better than he was handling accusation. And, you know, as we talk about the enemy and the attacks of the enemy and just you know where we end up being just in our human condition. It's interesting that you know, Job lost everything. But the thing that kind of made him come close to, you know, doing something he shouldn't have did and had him kind of straddling that fence of you know, challenging the Almighty, it was the accusations of others. So he came close to, you know, saying some things that he should not have said, not because of its physical pain, not because of his mourning, but uh essentially because of pride. Because, you know, as we have read through the books, you know, most of the stuff that's you know off the wall that makes you kind of question, like, dang, did Joe curse God is in response to his friends. It's not responsible, it's not in response to his initial suffering, but he kind of gets the deeper and deeper into his you know his misery as he's defending himself when you know perhaps he didn't need to defend himself. But I do want to just go ahead and read some of the um the actual scripture. Um, so the chapter that the title of chapter 34 is a lie who accuses Job of Arrogance. Um, so starting off with verse 7, tell me, had there ever been a man like Job with his first, his thirst for irreverent talk. He chooses evil people as companions, he spends his time with wicked men. Well, he has even said, Why waste time trying to please God? So in that moment, you know, one of his, you know, one of his first rebukes of Job is that, you know, it's just his company, the company that he's keeping while he's going through this suffering. Um, because, you know, at this point, you know, initially when they sat quietly with him for the first for the seven days, they were being supportive friends. But um, you know, just thinking on this, it just puts me in a place of just remembering even as we suffer and we have, you know, we're looking to, you know, for support and we're looking to vent, sometimes the our venting and who we vent to can be dangerous. And it doesn't mean that they're these are bad people that we're venting to, but we just have to trust the spirit of God and trust, you know, just just what we know in the natural and understand that certain places or certain people may not be the people to vent to. Um, because this is basically where Job got a little bit close to doing something he should not have done, because his friends weren't really coming at him with a um a perspective of friendship or a perspective of understanding. They did not know God's character. As I mentioned last week, they may have known God's words, but they did not know God's character and they weren't using them, the words you know that were using them as weapons. So I do want to go ahead and continue to read. I'm going to start off at verses 21 and I'm going to read down through 32. For God watches how people live, he sees everything they do. No darkness is thick enough to hide the wicked from his eyes. We don't set the time when we will come before God in judgment. He brings the mighty to ruin without asking anyone, and he sets up others in their place. He knows what they do, and in the night he overturns and destroys them. He strikes them down because they are wicked, doing it openly for all to see. For they turned away from following him. They have no respect for any of his ways. They cause the poor to cry out, catching God's attention. He hears the cries of the needy. But if he chooses to remain quiet, who can criticize him? When he hides his face, no one can find him, whether an individual individual or a nation. Why don't people say to God, I have sinned, but I will sin no more? Or I don't know what evil I've done, tell me, if I have done wrong, I will stop at once. So Elihu in this moment he's saying, you know, because Job is kind of went off on his tangent about how the wicked are not punished, and you know, how people, you know, you know, get away with doing evil. But in perspective, you know, Eli is responding back with the Lord does see all. He does have um, you know, obviously he is the last and final say on justice and judgment. So as we, you know, we go through our suffering and we get to these places where we think that the Lord isn't washing, and we get to these places where we're thinking that, you know, hey, it's no, what's the point of doing this? What is the point of, you know, me being good? We have to understand that, you know, our righteousness is not necessarily a gift to God. We cannot give God anything. We He He gives us, you know, He has, He give, He puts grace upon our life. We have the opportunity to live, and if we stick to His statutes, then we will live well. But there is suffering in this world. But the fact that of whether or not we suffer or not, that doesn't determine, that doesn't affect what God is. That we'd live in a fallen world. Now we know a bit more about this than Job in this time because, you know, as Pastor Carrick is mentioning, um, this is before Job is around a time of, you know, of Abraham, Isaac, etc., where there is not like a written scriptural text. So we have the perspective of looking, you know, kind of looking behind and seeing, um, you know, because we have the New Testament and Old Testament, et cetera. But what Eli was saying here is that our behavior is not a gift to God. He, you know, you know, he loves us, he wants us to do good, but you know, this thing is gonna be rolling regardless. These things have been in, you know, there are things that are in motion, there are things that, you know, the beginning and the end have already been written. But we have our free will to align with the right thing. Um, so in closing, I just want to read verses one through eight. Um, do you think that it is, then you do you think that it is right for you to claim I am righteous before God? For you also ask, what's in it for me? What's the use of having a righteous life? I will answer you and all your friends too. Look up into the sky and see the clouds high above you. If you sin, how does that affect God? Even if you sin again and again, what effect will it have on him? If you are good, this is some is is this some great gift to him? What could you possibly give him? No, your sins only affect people like yourself, and your good deeds only affect only and your good deeds also affect only humans. So in closing, um, I think with this just kind of puts in perspective the life we live, the lives that we want, the things that we are are striving for, that those things, you know, we are adding to the kingdom as we align ourselves with the the will of God, but we're not doing him a favor by doing so. If anything, we're doing ourselves the favor. And with that, we're ready for breakout rooms.