← Don't Miss This Study
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A
Hi everyone, I'm Dave Butler.
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And I'm Grace Freeman Smith.
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Welcome to don't miss this. If it's your very first time, you should know don't miss this means we want to show and find the things in the scriptures that we don't want to miss because we love the scriptures and we think one of the great purposes of the scriptures is to connect us with God and show us how good and wonderful he is and convince us to do life together with Him. There's just so much in here that's who hopeful and encouraging and. And we want to find them. We want to find all the best parts and just fall in love with scripture be because I think scripture helps us be God centered and faith centered people. And so anyways, we just love it. We love that you're here with us and we are just so excited to jump into our lesson for today.
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We can't wait. Also because listen, this feels criminal because it's the beginning of August. But everyone, what you don't realize is that sooner than you know it, conference is going to be here. That feels impossible.
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But you know, it's a week off from church. So it's just when it comes, it's just you, you're teaching a class and
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you get to have a little tree and you get to have a tree and you don't have to plan a lesson. So that's lucky. And conference workbooks, the general conference little study guide, watercolor kids book, all of the best things are releasing on a good news brand I think this very week. Catch. Okay, I hope that's true.
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So go there because we love that too. We love old scripture and we call this conference New Scripture and just as encouraging, just as hopeful. And so we create this, these workbooks for general conference too that just help you do the same thing, find the same hopeful, encouraging things. And one of them's super fun and the kid one is super fun, the other one's responsible. It's really beautiful and responsible, good for the soul. But if you are a doodler, the other ones so see we just are loving all the things wanting to find the good everywhere. So that's coming up. They'll be online also at Swiss Days which is if you're in local Utah and you love going to Swiss Days already, you can find our booth there too. So okay, you guys, this is a book that a lot of people are afraid of Job, because well, you should. It's for good reason.
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You should be.
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Well, it just is a topic you don't love. You Know, it just. Job is associated. He's almost become a meme. He's associated with just suffering. And that's. That's hard. It is hard. It's a hard thing. Like, I just got back from a humanitarian trip to Tanzania, and you know, you. You see people in circumstances and situations that genuinely are. Are suffering circumstances and situations, and that's hard. It's hard to see the pain, but to observe it and to experience it. The hardest part is not necessarily maybe the suffering itself, although I don't want to undermine the actual suffering, but rather like what the confusion of what is that suffering saying, right? And some of the things that run through your mind are, does this mean that God's angry with me? Have, like, have I done something wrong to, to deserve this? Or did I miss some sort of prompting, right? Like a tragedy happens and you think, wait, I could have been there to stop it. It was preventable. Did I miss that? Or am I not faithful enough or in tune enough to hear it? Do I not have enough faith? Does. Does this dare, I think, does this mean that God doesn't care or God has forgotten about me? So the suffering is hard in and of itself, of course, the pain that we feel in it, the loss. But there seems to be an even more or added painful part, which is the assumptions and the story that. That suffering says. So the book of Job was written for a moment like that. It was written for a moment when suffering is starting to tell you a story about God that is not true. And so although it's a book that addresses suffering, really what it's a book about is telling us how to endure and make it through the physical, emotional, and mental parts of suffering together with God. Because suffering, we'll see, probably will tempt us to push God away because we get angry with him. And this, this book was written for. For those moments to help us how to navigate that part of mortality.
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B
And in my head right now, all I was just thinking is that I was like, this actually really is really sad. Think of something else to say. And then I was like, it actually really is just sad. That is how the story starts, is it is really sad.
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And which, which I. I want to say that that's a reality of mortality. There are just parts of mortality that are sad. Like there's like the end, right? Yeah, I mean, not the end. There's something that we can, you know, ease sadness. God can help us through sadness. But the reality is sometimes life is just hard.
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B
Well, and because that's what I was thinking in my head is I was like, oh, I should start with something like, something encouraging. And the truth is the beginning of Job story is a little encouraging, but the heart of Job story isn't. It just really isn't that encouraging or happy. And is interesting because the beginning of Job story, I think we usually. That's the part we remember and that's the like, we, like, can tell it pretty quickly. But it is so interesting to me. This last time I read it, I never, like, I was just like, oh, I know what happens in Job story. Like, it's tragic. I know you lose. Loses everything. And then I really started thinking about it and it became really interesting to me because the first thing we find out about Job is how good he is that he's doing so good. And he lives his life very intentionally. And it even like, says, like, he has, like, a good life and he has kids and he has a lot of property and he has a lot of things going for him. And he has all his oxen and all his camels and all his 8 million. He lives on a farm. Okay. And he loves that life. It seems like there's a million animals there.
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Started the homestead.
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Homestead. And what happens is you also find out that he's like, he does everything he can to be good. So good, in fact, that he's like, I'm actually going to do extra. Like. Like, I'm going to do more sacrifices than I need to just in case my kids mess up and they forget to sacrifice. I'll cover them, too. Like, his heart was so good and he's living his good little life and he's doing his very best. And then it almost feels like a pause in the story and we get a glimpse into heaven, and all of a sudden we see this conversation in heaven. And I think it's really important to note that Job was still living his life. Job wasn't in the conversation. Job didn't know the conversation was happening. He was still just being a farmer on the homestead. That was his life. And we get a glimpse and into this conversation between the Lord and Satan. And Satan shows up and the Lord says, this is verse seven of chapter
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one, by the way. That as you read it, it's hopefully as you read you. You start to. The book of Job and Psalms and Proverbs that we're about to do are all called wisdom literature in the Bible, which means they're not written as necessarily historical accounts. As you jump into this conversation between the Lord and Satan, it should be assumed when you read it it probably wasn't an actual conversation that was happening. Cause they're going to start bargaining and
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you're going to be wondering about, like, what's really going on in heaven when you read it.
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Yeah, yeah. And it's poetic. It's a poetic conversation between the Lord and Satan. And I think that would be important as you read it.
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And I think there's really important lessons to learn about it. Even, like, if you get really wrapped up in the bargaining, you're never going to get over that for this entire book of Job. Like, you're going to be so worried about what God's doing in heaven that you might miss the lesson. Not just in the book of Job, but this conversation with Satan and God that I think is really powerful. Because what happens is Satan shows up and the Lord's like, where were you? And Satan's like, oh, you know, like, I was just wandering to and fro on earth. Like, I was just doing my thing on earth, whatever. And the Lord looks back and he's like, well, what do you know about my servant Job? Because can you just believe how good he is? And like, we should read this for a second. Like, for real. Because if you wonder how the Lord feels about Job, it is answered in one verse. And that's going to be important for the rest of this book because.
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A
Yeah, because I was going to say, even though this is a poetic representation, it's a poetic representation of a. Of a reality. Right. And one of the realities is that how God feels about his kids.
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Yeah, for sure.
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Like, he, like, brags about joke.
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Yeah, he's so proud. He's so proud.
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Like, listen, as a dad, I'm like, of course he is. True. Of course I know True. Because the only thing I don't sit at a soccer game and when, you
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know, someone else comes to talk to
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you, or like when Caleb hits a triple or something, I'm like, you know, Jones catches out. Out in the field, you know, like when none of the kids can catch in Jones's league. And I'm just like, that's my kids.
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So what do you guys know about. What do you know about Jones? So do you guys see that Jones boy? Bye. Bye.
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And he said, turn around, Jones. Let everyone see Butler on the back of that jersey.
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Yes. And he says, have you considered my servant Job? And he says this. That there is none like him in the earth. A perfect and upright man, one that fears God and hates evil. And you are just so proud of him. And he can't even help it. He has to brag. And Satan's like, yeah, he's not as good as you think. Like, I could get him. And the Lord looks back and he's like, okay, you know what? I'll give you whatever power you need to, like, try to test him. Like, you go ahead and you get after him, like, as long as you save his life, like, see what you can do with him. Because, like, I know he's good. Like, I'm not worried about it. And I think you could sit here and you could, like, wonder, like, okay, like, what does that mean when you're, like, pausing and thinking about, like, God and is he making bets with Satan? Whatever. Like, you can, like, talk about that. I don't think that's the most powerful lesson here. I think the most intriguing part of this entire story is that Job has no idea this conversation is happening. He's just still living on the homestead. He is about to live a test that he has no idea is on the way or coming. And I think that there are moments in our life that are the exact same way. And I think that we could sit here on life is sit here in mortality, living our lives. And I think it's a really cool lesson to say, you have no idea what's happening in heaven. You have no idea what God is saying about you. You have no idea what. What he believes about you. You have no idea how proud he is of you. Because what's going to happen for the rest of this story, I'm going to give one spoiler story, is that there's going to be a lot of times for the rest of Job's life that he's going to look and he's going to say, why did this happen to me? And people are going to say, God must hate you. He must be so mad at you. You must have done something that made God so upset with you that he's going to punish you. When in all reality, what was happening behind the scenes is God was a proud dad. God thought Job was doing so well, and he loved him. And the truth is about mortality, we just don't know what's happening in heaven.
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Well, I was going to say, even there are times that, just like heaven aside, there are times when we make wrong assumptions about certain situations, right? We see something that somebody does. This is take. Take God completely out of the picture. Like, I see something someone does at the grocery store, and I make an assumption about them, and I find out later you were wrong about that person. You. You made a wrong assumption, and you reacted Based off of that assumption that you made about them. Like, somebody does something in your family and you make a wrong assumption about why they did it and what happened, and then you find out later the truth, and you're just like, oh, my gosh, I had no idea. Right. And if that happens on Earth, I think we ought to also assume that we might be making wrong assumptions about heaven. If we can make a wrong assumption about someone who lives next door, then I think it's probably good for us to remember. I am certainly making a wrong assumption about things that are happening up in
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heaven, too, as the reader.
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And that's just a wise way to live.
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We have an unfair advantage. We get the whole story. We should probably try to live every day like that and say, I might not be having a full picture of this story as the reader right now. In the story of Job, we do have an unfair advantage. An advantage that Job didn't have. Yeah, we didn't get like, we got more than Job did. Because what happens next is that conversation ends, and then Job's life really does fall apart. A servant runs into him and he says, listen, I'm the only one that survived. All the oxen died, all the servants died. I'm the only one that lived. You lost. You lost all of that.
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You lost your business.
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Yeah, you lost your business. And there was probably some part of him that he's like, at least I got the sheep. And the second he thinks that, just for the record, another servant runs in and says, just so you know, you lost all the sheep and all the servants over the sheep, and I'm the only one left. And Job, little by little, starts losing all of these things. And then, while he was yet speaking for the record, this didn't happen day after day after day. This was in an instant. Then they come, and he says, because at some point when he loses his whole business, you know, that. That good, good boy Job thought, at least I have my family. At least I have my house. And then he loses that as well. The four quarters of the house fell on the young men, and they are all dead. And I only am escaped alone to tell you. And within in scripture, within 10 verses, and in life, you could say within 10 minutes, he lost everything that he felt like he had going for him. And Job responds, just for the record, the only way you should. And he looks and he stands up. It says, job arose and he rent his mantle and shaved his his head and fell down upon the ground. And we should pause right here before you get the next Word. And I think it's really important for us to realize that God didn't think there was anyone else walking the earth as good as Job. He was his best kid, you could say. He was so proud of him. He made great choices. And when Job's life fell apart, do you know what Job did? He fell apart and he shaved his head and he mourned. All of those words. In case you're like, what do you mean? He rent his mantle and he shaved his head and he fell down upon the ground. That would have been very clear mourning language. And to you, you're like, wait, I don't even know what that means. It's okay you don't shave your head when you mourn anymore. But there are still things that we do to mourn and to grieve. And that is what Job did. Very first thing is he grieved. And that wasn't problematic, and that wasn't something that Job was going to be condemned for. That was the reality of the situation. And as we read, honestly, within the next couple weeks, you're going to get to psalms in your reading and you're going to see a very similar pattern. That grief is not a lack of faith. Grief is not something that you should say, oh, they're doubting, or that be a little bit braver, stand a little taller. This is God's plan. You should own it a little bit better. Grief is worship. Grief is spiritual. And it's spelt out in job 1:20. He does all of that and then it says, and worshiped grief is not a lack of faith. Grief can so clearly be considered worship. When you read it in this story. And he looks down and he's going to take that grief and he says, I started my life with nothing, and now the Lord gave me so much, and he took it away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And then you read this verse in all this, Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly. And that should be your reminder that your tears are not a lack of faith. Your heartbreak is not a lack of faith. You, your like, your. The moments where you say, like, I just need to cry, and I need to be upset that this happened to me, and I need to be a little bit angry that all of this is happening. You can go ahead and you can fill your name instead of Job's. You did not sin for grieving. You are not lacking faith for your tears. That is worship through and through. Because you are forgetting. Job doesn't know the test is coming. He has to live his test blind to what's going on in heaven. And just because you're grieving doesn't mean that you're unfaithful.
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Well, one time I heard a definition of the word worship, and it meant to emulate as one of the definitions of. And I can't remember where that came from, but I just stuck in my head somewhere. So to emulate is to try and live the pattern of somebody else, right? And so if he's worshiping God in his tears, he's actually emulating the Father and the Son. And we have examples of that, of both the Father and the son weeping in situations, right? And he's emulating that because to cry means that you care. Like, love comes out as tears. Caring about something important comes out as grief, and it comes out as mourning. So he is emulating an emotional God. God is emotional. God is invested in what's happening in his children's lives, and he's just emulating that. He was like, I'm caring. Like, God cares about this world and about the people in it.
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And what's gonna happen next for the rest of this book of Job is that he's gonna begin to ask questions that are so familiar for us when tragedy strikes. And he's gonna hear commentary from all the people in his life, and they're gonna say mostly the wrong things, and they're gonna bring up, oh, maybe you didn't live good. Maybe. Maybe God's upset. Maybe he's angry at you. And there's gonna be days when Job says, I need the answers to those questions. And in that moment, as the reader, I would suggest to pause and realize that from the beginning of this story, God knew the answers to those questions. He knew he was not upset at Job. God knew how he felt, that he loved him, that he was proud of him, that God knew that he was taking care of Job, even though it didn't seem that way to the person living that mortality. And I think it's fair to say that one lesson you can learn from chapter one of Job is that God's going to let you suffer through the hard questions, and he's going to let you experience life and experience mortality. And he's not going to do it because he is mad at you or because you did something wrong. He sees the whole picture. He knows how he feels about you from chapter one. And just so you know, spoiler, he loves you and he's proud of you. And he is going to claim that on chapter one of this, even though for the next 20 chapters there will be suffering and there will be questions unanswered and there will be doubts and there will be wonderings that Job might not have the answer to, but that does not mean that God doesn't. And he's going to let Job wonder and he's going to let him question and he's going to let him try to figure it out.
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A
Yeah. In fact, I'll just tell you this right now. Job never gets the answer to the questions for why, for suffering in this whole book. So I hate to say that to you right now, but the reality is, is there's something exalting about the struggle and about the wondering and, and the trying to wrestle with that. And throughout this whole book, you'll actually see Job wrestle with it. At the end of one, his response is so faithful. Naked I came into this world and naked I shall leave. God giveth and God taketh away. He has separated the prosperity of his life from the goodness of God. Right. Does that make sense where he's just like, just because I lost all these things doesn't mean God isn't good anymore. But later he's going to connect them and he's going to fall apart with it and he's going to go back and forth and. And what a great book to read. It was. It was meant to be read in one sitting because it just takes you through the emotional like washing machine of what it's like to live with grief and suffering. Now chapter two is interesting because Satan comes back again and there's this bargaining again. And remember, I think it's poetic. It's poetic, but it's pointing to realities. And some of the realities that it's point that it points to is one we talked about. God looks down and bets on you. God bets on you. He's like, my money's on this kid of mine. Right? He sees the very, very best in all of his children. Number two, God does allow adversity and Satan to do whatever he does in this world. That is also a reality. In fact, sometimes it's helpful to read Job chapter one and two, as if you're sitting in the premortal world and God saying, yes, I am going to allow Satan to be on that earth and yes, I am going to allow tornadoes and earthquakes and sickness and all of those things to happen, you know, and gave us the choice and said to us, you should know those things are down there. If you want to go down there, which you do, I'm just telling you these things are down there. So it could be pointing, you know, to that reality. And also he sets bounds on Satan, which God also does too, on this earth. So there are some realities that it's, that it's pointing to. I think chapter two is interesting because what happens is Job now starts to suffer physically. And you know, I. There is something about that. And that is kind of what breaks Job. He loses all of these things and he's okay, and then he starts to suffer physically. And my heart goes out to anybody who is dealing with some sort of chronic pain and illness. That is. Chapter two introduces it to us as one of the very, very most difficult parts of reality. It's hard to have hope when your body is hurting. It's hard to have faith when your mind is hurting. It's hard to trust God when you are having long time, intense suffering. And I love that chapter two shows some compassion toward that and introduces that and says to us, like even this very, very, very faithful guy collapses when he deals with personal physical suffering. So we, it's. I love that this God almost says to any of you who are dealing with that, I see you and I know how very, very difficult that is. And so he just collapses in total grief. And we get introduced to these three friends of his in chapter 2, verse 11, which God bless them. God bless them, okay, for the rest of the book, we. They aren't going to be our best friends. But in chapter two they set to us and give us a pattern of what it looks like to be a friend to someone who is in a time of suffering. Because look what happens when they come in verse 11. Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came everyone from his own place. That's number one, right? Our word of the week is actually friend. And, and listen, we're only looking at chapter two for this. And the verse comes from chapter two, because later on they're not. We'll. We'll get into later on. But here, here they're so good. And they came everyone from his own place. I love that these friends of his heard what happened and came running, right? I love. Remember that word succor is translated in Scripture as to run to. They heard it and they were like, I gotta do something about this. So they came from wherever they were dropped, whatever they're doing, and they came together. I love this. For they had made an appointment together to come mourn with him. Don't you think that's so rad that one of their friends was suffering and so the other Three of them got on a text thread and said, you guys, what should we do? How do we help? And that's what they do. And they come and they said, let's mourn with him and comfort him. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, they knew him not. They lift up their voice and they wept. They felt compassion. And they rent everyone his own mantle and sprinkled dust on their own heads towards heaven. They started to mourn together. And then, this is the one. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights. And none spake a word unto him, for they saw that his grief was very great. And what. What a great pattern of what it looks like to be a friend in a time of suffering, to hear it, to have compassion, to decide, I am going to sit in this with you. And they offered no explanation. They only just sat with him through it. Let me just be with you. And if you've ever had a friend who has been in a time of suffering, it is so hard to not say something. You want to give an answer. You want to make them feel better. And often you just don't have it. And I think it's important maybe to remember because sometimes there might be room for that. But I think most often it might be good to remember. Your job is not to provide an explanation. Your job might just be to love and to sit with and to mourn and simply to say, yes, this is so sad. My heart breaks with you and I am crying with you.
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B
And I want to say on the other end of that, I think of so many times in my life when I hear of something that happened and my first instinct is, well, I don't know what to say. So I don't want to go over there because I don't know what to say to them. And I'm not going to have the right words. And I think that Job would say back to me, you're not supposed to. Yeah, you're not supposed to know what to say. That's probably a godly feeling when you say, I don't know what to say. You probably are. That's probably the spirit saying, you don't know what to say, so don't. So go and sit in silence. Your job isn't to have the answer.
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Right.
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Your job is to sit.
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Yeah.
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So take that. Take that as your prompting. You don't know what to say. Perfect. At least you know what to do.
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Yeah, I will often. And I want to say, I love that you just said that because that you could be prevented from doing anything because you just don't know what to say. But if you know, oh, your job is not to say anything. It's just to say, I love you.
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Yeah. And I.
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And I'm crying with you.
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Yeah.
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Like, I just am. I'm brokenhearted about this with you. Over the next couple chapters. And let me just kind of summarize this, because really, for a huge chunk of this book, it is the friends. That's why this book is so long. It's the friends giving a whole explanation of why they think this happened, and then Job responding to it, and then another friend giving an explanation of why they think this happened and Job responding to it. So if you have a pen ready, you can mark these down. But here's a couple of verses that just give a summary of about 20 chapters of the book of Job. And ain't this the truth that you really could walk in circles and talk. 21 chapters worth. If you're trying to figure out why a certain bad thing happened in a life, you really could talk and talk and talk and talk and talk about it. And they do, and they wrote it down. But like, Here's 1. Job 4, 7, and 8. Who ever perished who was innocent? One of the friends says, they that plow iniquity so wickedness, and they reap the same. Okay, another friend in job 8, 6. If thou wert pure and upright, surely he would not awake for thee. Okay, here's another one. Job 11, 6. Now, therefore, that God exacteth of the less than thine iniquity deserveth. Now let me translate all of these for you. King James, he says, basically, the friends are saying, you did this, right? Sin brings suffering, or God must be correcting you, or you have done something wrong, obviously. And that last friend, well, you probably actually deserve worse if you got, you know, equal. You know, equal punishment for. For this, the sin. And you know what? There are probably some times when those lines are true, right? I can think of times in my life where I was like, I caused this. I'm suffering, and I caused it. That's true. That can be true. But something that is true can still be wrongly applied to a person. And the problem is they're trying to be so specific about what happened. They're forgetting that God lives in heaven and there is some mystery to everything that he is doing. And they're not leaving any room for, like, undeserved suffering. They're just. And. And no room for grace either. And they're just trying to be really specific about their answers. And it's just, it's not, it's just not right. They are just not right. And they're kind of making the situation worse. And again, they needed to remember what they knew in chapter two, that your friend. Your job is not to explain God. Your job is to love Job. And you can be good at that because you probably can't be super good at explaining God, but you can be really good at loving. And so, you know, take, take that Job. I remember when my sister lost her daughter, someone giving her advice and saying to her, just so you know, people are going to come out of the woodwork and say some really dumb things. Try and give them a lot of grace because they're just trying to help, but most people don't know how. So they're going to do it in kind of foolish ways, you know, and, and, and Job is going to think these things of himself too. So it's just, all these conversations are just a part of what it looks like to. That the suffering's hard, but what makes the suffering harder is what the story we are telling ourselves about the suffering.
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B
And I think that's honestly the saddest part is that like when I, like I was just thinking about when you were reading that list, like, you caused this. You deserve worse for like what you had to have done. Like, you must have done something so wrong. And I, when you hear that, like in my head I was like, oh, like what was Job thinking when they said that? And the saddest part of the whole story is he was just thinking, you must be right.
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A
Yeah. And you know, that hasn't changed. We don't know by the way, when the book of Job was written. We don't, we didn't put it on the timeline for you because it's in an unknown time period. They don't put it anywhere in the time period of the Old Testament, which I think is probably wise. It's the start of wisdom literature because it pretty much says this is your story wherever you live. Because the location is actually a made up location in chapter one, verse one, us. Yeah, sounds like Oz. Yeah, it's like it's the land, right? It's like this. There are some parts of this that put it in an unknown time, in an unknown place, as if to say this is everywhere and everyone is what this is. And I mean I, I have said these words out loud, they've come out of my mouth that when something wrong happened, I said, oh, what did I do wrong? Like, why do I deserve this? And do you see the assumption that I'm making when I say that long, that line, what have I done wrong? I'm assuming that this is actually a punishment from God. Like, I. Like that's deep embedded in me. No one taught me to say that.
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No.
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But it's just like this. This reaction to suffering is as. Is a tale as old as time. Right. And we still do it. We do it all the time.
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B
Yeah. And what's so interesting is what happens next is those three friends kind of go. And they're yapping for so many chapters. And what you don't realize in the middle of all of that is that they weren't the only friends there. And then all of a sudden, in chapter 33.
- [32:07]
A
Actually, can I just say this? And maybe. Maybe I already said this, which. How can I not remember five minutes? But the fact that you just said they yap for chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter. And I just want to say, like. And saying like, that that dialogue goes in my head night after night after night after night. The fact that there's 20 chapters of it is a reflection of reality, part
- [32:31]
B
of this whole thing.
- [32:32]
A
Yeah. And it's whether a friend. You know, in the movies, when, like, a person sitting there and they hear, like, all, like, the voices, like, you can't do it.
- [32:39]
B
Yeah.
- [32:40]
A
They all, like, they'll come. I was like, I actually feel like that's reality. Like, sometimes I sit there and I replay these same things again and again and again and again.
- [32:48]
B
Well, and especially after tragedy, that's the most common time to do it, because over and over and over and over again, nonstop. So it is a verse, 30 verses. Of course it's 30 chapters, because that is human. That's human of us.
- [33:02]
A
Yeah.
- [33:03]
B
And then all of a sudden, you meet this other friend.
- [33:07]
A
How have people not changed?
- [33:08]
B
No.
- [33:09]
A
In 5,000 years.
- [33:10]
B
Like, the fact that this is the most relevant book.
- [33:12]
A
How is this the oldest book? And there are parts of it, obviously, that are like, that's crazy.
- [33:17]
B
Yeah.
- [33:17]
A
Right. But it's like, at the heart and soul of Scripture is like, humanity.
- [33:22]
B
Yeah.
- [33:22]
A
And we.
- [33:23]
B
We are just humans.
- [33:24]
A
Yeah. We are kind of the same. Yeah.
- [33:26]
B
Yeah, exactly. And you meet this other friend, and his name is Elihu, and you don't even realize he's there. The whole entire time, he hasn't said one single word for the record. And you also want to know this about him, that while everyone else, all the other friends for 30 chapters wanted to give advice, Elihu still just stayed quiet. He just listened. And you also want to know this, he was the youngest one there. He was just the kid, and he was just listening. And what's going to happen with Elihu is he's actually going to start saying things that really are good, and he's going to have words and thoughts that are beneficial and inspiring and helpful. But what you should know very first, I think are the two greatest lessons from him is, number one, sometimes the most helpful thing you can do is listen for 30 chapters before you say your thoughts. And he did still say things, as did the other three friends, but it was okay for him to just listen to the situation 30 times over before he ever opened his mouth. And second of all, I think it's so interesting that usually wisdom is attributed to age.
- [34:42]
A
I was just thinking the same thing.
- [34:44]
B
And he was the youngest one there, and I think it's really important to think he was not the smartest. He was not the one that had the most context. He was not the one that sat there and said, I've lived through something. I have something to say. He was almost you. Like, when you think of someone young, and the fact that it brings up that he was the youngest one almost makes you want to say he was a little bit naive, and he was just a little like. He was just like, oh, I don't really know what to do. And I think that maybe there is a lesson in the fact that he showed up there, probably the most humble, and he said, I don't know. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know if I have the right answers. I don't know if I'm going to say the right things. So I'm going to step into this situation, I assuming I don't know, and listening for 30 seconds before I tell you what I actually think.
- [35:39]
A
Yeah, I just thought. I mean, I was thinking that same exact thing, because I actually think some of the wisest things that I've heard older people say are the older I get, the less I realize I know. You know, I actually remember, like, teaching with this older teacher, and he just said to me, when I was a younger seminary teacher, I was a lot more confident about things. I was a lot more sure about some of my answers. And as I've lived more life, I've. I've left room for, like I said, more of that mystery, more of the, you know what, I just don't know and comfortable with that. And I think there's a lot of wisdom. It made me think when I was the line I thought in the New Testament is Jesus says, be like little children. And this might be one of the reasons why come in. Just like, I. I don't know, you know, I just. But I can give you a hug or whatever.
- [36:32]
B
And that's why Elihu might be one of my favorites is because I. My dad two years ago got diagnosed with cancer and was going through a pretty brutal chemotherapy and it was really tragic. And I will say as a grown kid that there was a lot of days that I would show up to my house and you just don't really know how to treat him. And you are like, you don't want to baby him because he's your dad. But like, also, he's so sick and he's so hurting and he's going through something so difficult. And I will never forget one day all the nieces and nephews came over and they were playing with him and laughing with him and giving him hugs and they were talking to him about all the things that a three year old wants to talk to him about, which is like Super Mario and dinosaurs. And he was responding about how important it is to learn all the dinosaur names because that's what is the most important when you're four years old and all the kids left. And I remember he looked at me and he said, oh, I just love when they come over because I don't feel sick anymore. I love talking to them more than I like talking to anyone else because they don't see me as someone that has chemo, they just see me as papa. And I wonder if part of the reason that it brings up the fact that Elihu is young is not because young people don't know enough. Or it's saying that old people don't give good wisdom. Maybe it's saying that sometimes it's helpful to step into a situation and live it like a kid and say, I'm just gonna tell you why I know, like I'm a kid and I'm gonna hug you like, like a kid. And maybe when someone's suffering, it's helpful to go in and say, sometimes they're probably going to want to get things off their chest and talk about how crappy chemotherapy is, but sometimes they might just want to talk about dinosaurs and chemotherapy and be able to show up like that kid and Elihu is going to go through and he's going to give such good wisdom. But when you read it, you're going to notice it is kid like wisdom. In chapter 33 you're going to read
- [38:38]
A
verse 12 and can I just Say this. I looked it up. Well, right when you said. When you were trying to say his name, I was like, I looked in the journal because we gave. And we give a name, you know, every single week for. What does it mean?
- [38:47]
B
Yeah.
- [38:47]
A
In Hebrew.
- [38:48]
B
Yeah.
- [38:48]
A
Because it's often a cool part of the story.
- [38:50]
B
Yeah.
- [38:50]
A
And I looked and it's. Job is the name we picked, you know, which. Which means this is actually cool. Job actually means, where is the Father? Where is God? But Elihu means, he is my God. So Elihu actually becomes. The names actually teach the lesson. Job's story says, where is God? And Elihu comes in and he says, here he is.
- [39:16]
B
And you'll notice that when all the other friends are talking, it really does feel like they're making assumptions about who God is.
- [39:24]
A
Well. And they're talking about Job.
- [39:26]
B
Yes.
- [39:26]
A
This is what you did wrong. This is what you deserve. This is what you. And Eli, who actually comes in and
- [39:31]
B
he flips the narrative completely. And all he says is, this is what I know about God.
- [39:37]
A
Yeah.
- [39:37]
B
And it's not just from Job story, but it's from his. It's from others. And you're gonna see this in verse 12. He says, Behold, in this, thou art not. Just say the chapter again in case. Chapter 33, verse 12.
- [39:48]
A
Sorry, that was lost.
- [39:49]
B
And he says, I will answer thee. No, that's okay. I love that. This is the phrase, I will answer thee. And then this is his answer that God is greater than man. My answer is not about you and what you did wrong. My answer is about who God is. He goes to verse 26, same chapter. He shall pray unto God, and he will be favorable unto him. And he shall see his face with joy. For he will render unto man his righteousness. That is something that Elihu must have known about who God is. You keep going to chapter.
- [40:22]
A
Well, I just like that. I love that line so much. Just like. Hey, not will be is a future tense. Right. God will be favorable. In the end, you'll have reason to praise. That's what you knew about him. God's going to be favorable. Favorable.
- [40:35]
B
That he's good, that he's kind, that it's going to be joyful when you see him again. Verse 35. Although thou sayest. This is verse 14. Although thou say.
- [40:45]
A
And he's. All these chapters, El. All these chapters. We're just pointing out highlights.
- [40:48]
B
Yes, yes.
- [40:49]
A
Cuz you'll find. If you want to read them.
- [40:51]
B
Yeah, there's a lot. There's a lot. There's a lot.
- [40:52]
A
We still Know how much you want to commit.
- [40:54]
B
Yeah. Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him, yet judgment is before him. Therefore, what should you do right now? Trust in him. That's it. You can't do much, but you might as well trust. And verse 37.
- [41:06]
A
And can I just say. Sorry I keep interrupting, because this is actually on your. Was on your grandma's wall once upon a time. That line that I have carried for many, many years now, that when you can't see the hand of God, you trust his heart. And that is what 3514 is saying. Though you cannot see him when. Which often happens in tragedy. Tragedy's loud. Pain is loud. They block out the voice of God. They blind us. They're like a storm. So in those moments when you can't see God, you trust his heart. And that advice has. Has been an anchor to me for so many years.
- [41:47]
B
And that is what the difference feels like when Ellie Hugh's talking the whole entire time is it feels like the rest of the sweet friends who were just trying their best. Shirley. We're just trying to, like, kind of sit there and be like, yeah, where is God in this? And since he's not here, he probably hates you, and you probably did something wrong. And then all of a sudden, when Elihu speaks, it feels like time and time again, he's like, let's go back to his heart. You might not see him right now. That's okay. Let's go back to what we know about Him. He delivereth the poor in his affliction and open their ears in oppression. Right after he says, trust his heart, he's like, let me remind you in chapter 36, verse 15, what he does and who he is and what he's capable of. And then in verse 37, he says this. Chapter 37, chapter 37, verse 14. Sorry. He says, hearken unto this, O Job. Stand still and consider us and consider the wondrous works of God. First of all, we should pause. And I think it's so tender that to someone in the depths of their grief, his advice is to stand still. Because for me, when my heart is broken the most, I want to run. And I want to fill my time with a million things, and I want to distract myself. And just so you know, sometimes I'm just gonna say it. This is my personal wisdom. It's not the wisdom from the Scriptures. Sometimes you have to do that to survive. That's okay. That's okay. If you're in survival mode, that's gonna be fine. Read this verse next week instead of this week. That's gonna be okay. Yeah.
- [43:25]
A
Don't. Don't forget that story of Elijah and the cake where it's like sometimes. Do you know what's so funny is I had read that story and I was a bishop, and a lady came to my office and just. Her life, everything was falling apart. It was all falling apart. And I told her, you should go home and order a pizza and some crumble cookie. And you should sit in your bed and binge Netflix.
- [43:50]
B
And you should not. You should choose something so that you don't have to think of one single thing going on in your life.
- [43:55]
A
Tomorrow come back and then we'll like. We'll start approaching this with wisdom. But for today, yeah, it gonna be crumble in that place.
- [44:03]
B
So it's okay if chapter 37, verse 14 is next week's verse for you, not this week's verse for you. But I think it's so interesting what happens, because he's gonna tell Job to stand still. And usually in the depths of heartbreak and grief, that is the last thing you want to do. Because you don't want to think about what happened. You don't want to process those emotions. And he's going to tell Job, stand still for a minute and consider the wondrous works of God. Pause in this moment and look for what God is doing. Look for his actions, his hand in your life. And what is so beautiful about this story is Elihu is going to say that. And immediately what happens after is God shows up. He shows up in the story. And Elihu, who knows everything he said, if that was the most important thing, exactly what Job needed, I don't know. But I would guess that what Job actually needed was someone to stand in his place, in this place with him, and say, pause for a second and let God show up.
- [45:13]
A
Yeah.
- [45:14]
B
Take a minute, be still. Think about all the marvelous things God has done for you.
- [45:21]
A
Yeah.
- [45:21]
B
And let that be the entry path for God.
- [45:25]
A
Yeah. So I wrote this just barely in my margin because I was thinking about the very first chapter of Job 1:7. It talks about Satan going to. And he was like, where have you been? He was like, I've been going to and fro on the earth. And once upon a time I learned, and I'd forgotten that the to and fro of that is a frantic. Right. And actually, if you look through scripture, Satan is the only one who's acting frantically in all of scripture, which I don't know how I feel about that right now. Okay. Compared to my life. But I just love the comparison of that. There was this frantic to and frozen and all of these chapters of maybe it's this, maybe it's this, maybe it's this, maybe it's this, maybe, you know. And then you get to this moment in 37, 14. Hey. The opposite of it is shh, stand still. And I don't think God shows up in 38, but maybe job realizes he's been there all along in 38. And it was that advice that said, hey, stop. You're trying to figure God out and what I want you to do is spend time with him instead. And that's what starts to happen in 38. And 38 to 41 is finally this moment where Job sits in the presence of God and they have a one on one time together. Now it's kind of difficult in the King James Bible. So you might, if you want to read this, these chapters they have together, as like I would highly suggest these chapters they have together. You might pick another translation of the Bible to do that. Just so you're understanding what is actually going on here. But look at what happens when he, when he's just like God comes in and it says, then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind. Is that interesting that like, it's just. Which is so fun that they say a whirlwind. Yeah. Emotionally a whirlwind. Life had been a whirlwind. And he spoke in it and he says this verse 4, where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest, or who have stretched the line upon it? Where upon earth foundations fasted? Or who laid the corner stones thereof? Or in other words, like, where. Where were you when the moon and the stars were hung in the sky? Because I was there. Right. And, and did you measure out how big and wide earth would be and where the oceans would go and where the land would be? No, but I did. And, and, and he said, were you there? And said when the morning stars sang together and all the sun shouted up for joy, like I've been a part. And he just keeps going through and he starts bringing up all of creation. He gives them this like tour of creation, right? Where he's just says like. And he mentions constellations. He talks about different animals. Have you. Do you know how ostriches lay their eggs? It's actually one of the things that he says. He said, do you know how ostriches lay their eggs? Which, by the way, can I just Say this. I learned this about ostriches. And it's. I'm gonna. It's gonna make sense.
- [48:20]
B
I'm really scared of ostriches.
- [48:21]
A
It's gonna make sense. Okay, same. You can be. Just go watch that Swiss Family Robinson where they ride one and they're friendly.
- [48:28]
B
I don't know.
- [48:28]
A
That's for you. It's your homework. Okay. But. Okay, I'm gonna just say this, and I promise it's gonna make sense, but female ostriches are the color. They're. They're a brown color. They're not the ones that you know from books. They're like a brown color. They're, like, the color of grass. And male ostriches are those dark black ones that you know. And when we were in Tanzania on the safari, our guide was like, do you want it? Do you want it away? And I was like, why? And he's like, because the females sit on the eggs during the day, and they're camouflaged with the color of the grass. And then the males come at night, and they're black like the dark sky. And so they camouflage the eggs so they, like, work together to protect their eggs. Females are that color for the daytime, and males are that color to protect them from predators in the nighttime. And I was like, who thought of that? Like, why? And that's exactly what God is doing in these chapters where he's just like. You see how, like, the seasons just go, and the stars go, and the moon controls the tides, and the sun. Sun comes, and the seasons go, and all the plants and animals and everything just works together. And I am taking care of all of that. He was like, I bet you didn't know, Job, that I made ostriches that way to protect their babies. I bet you didn't know that, but I did. I did. And I have been. I have been watching over and orchestrating everything that happens on this earth for a really long time. And I don't. This is not a lecture to Job, but it was a moment, I think, for Job to feel awe and to feel like the wonder of the greatness and of the goodness of God, where he says, let me have you sit for a minute in the majesty of creation. And remember, I'm caring for the sparrows. So most. And I. And I feed the ravens is one of the lines. And I hung the stars. I promise you I am giving at least equal attention and more to my favorite of all creation, you. And you'll notice after you get done reading that he doesn't give an explanation for any of his suffering. He doesn't tell him why for any of it. He's like. He just lets him sit in the trust of a great and a good God. And that actually becomes the answer in the entire book, right? And. And you'll see he starts to move through the answers in chapter 42. This is the last chapter. And I want to. Like, as I go into 42, I'm gonna footnote you to a couple of different places. But then it says in 42, then job answered the Lord and said, I know that thou can. You can do anything and everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. I know that about you. And I think it's interesting because throughout the book, even though there were moments where Job's like, I hate this and God forgot me, there are other moments in the book where he, like, realizes things. And I just want to show you a couple of those right where. Here's. Here's one of them. Go back to chapter 1925 through 27. And I want to put this together in context of this for anyone studying this chapter. At the end of 41 chapters, there are still things Job does not know. But now he starts to give you the list of the things that he does, and he's going to rest in and find confidence and trust in the things he does know. That's the list that we're making right here. Here's one of them. 1925. I might not know A, B, and C, but he says, but I do know in 25, my redeemer lives and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. To stand is a symbol in Old Testament scripture of victory. So what he's saying is, he lives and he will have victory in the end is what's going to happen. And though 26 after my skin worms destroy this body, even if yet in my flesh shall I see God. He says, even if everything is destroyed, it will be restored, Lord. And in that restoration, I will see God, whom I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold and not another. It will be my experience. That's one thing he knows. Go back to chapter 13. I should have put these in order. It's fine, friends. Fifteen though he slay me. Now, that's again poetic language. God. God's not slain Job. He's like. Though he allows mortality to do what it does, yet will I trust him, right? He says, that's. That's something that. That I know. He. It says in 16 shall also be my salvation. He, even though These things are happening that are wrong. God's job is not to punish. God's job is to save. I do know that. And then just one more in chapter 23:10 but he knoweth the way that I shall take, and when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. And he just says, I also know that whatever happens in this world and in this life, God is going to use it to turn my soul into gold. I. I do know. I do know that. So there's a lot of things I don't know, he says, but those are the things that I. That I do know. And I think that's a really important spiritual pattern in times that we are frantic in the whirlwind of our mind to sit, stand still and consider the wonder and the beauty and majesty of God and come away from that and make a list that says, these are the things that I do know about him. And 42 goes on and gives what I think is the central part of the the whole book, and says in 3 who is he the height of counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not things too wonderful for me which I knew not. And he said, another thing I know is there are things I don't know, but there But God is wonderful. And I didn't even know how wonderful he was until now. And then this line which I love so much, verse five, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye seeth thee. And I think that is the beautiful thing was the advice that Elihu gave. He was like, there's a lot of things that you have heard about God, some bad, but even some good. Oh, I've heard that you're a redeemer. But then now Job says, but now my eye sees that you are. And what has happened for him is he's just like. He's had this moment where he says, I've heard all these things about you, but now I know them. Now I know you. I don't just know about you. I know you. I've experienced you. And isn't it interesting that it's in his pain that he learns who God really is? That's where he actually came to know him. And that seems to be just the core of this. It's like, oh, we spend 41 chapters trying to figure out the why. And here in 42, Job realizes, oh, it's actually about the who, right? I don't have to know all the why. I don't have to see his hand in order to trust his heart. And I'm going to trust who. This is what I know about him. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna trust him and that, that what I know about his character is gonna carry me through the unknown.
- [56:48]
B
And I think that when you read this book of Job, that it's true, it might be really relatable for really distinct individual moments of your life and different tragedies in your life. But I think especially when you read it chapter one to chapter 42, one of the most beautiful parts of the book of Job is when you read it less about one specific tragedy in your life and more when you look at your life as a whole. We talked about at the beginning how you could kind of see, I think this entire book as the story of the plan of salvation. And how from the very beginning God looks and he says, I'm going to let Satan get in the way of your life a little bit. And that's going to be the truth about mortality. And there's going to be tragedy. But I know who you are and you are good and you are one of my very best kids. And I know what you're capable of. And I know that even when you're down there and Satan is kind of messing things up and hurting and things are going wrong and there's tragedy in your life. I know who you are and you are good. But I might be far away in heaven, but I trust you and you've got this. And Satan comes down and messes everything up and tragedy strikes and we go through the process of life and we ask all of the really difficult questions and we spend years and years without getting any of the answers. And we're working through grief and heartbreak and friends who say the right thing and friends who say the wrong thing. And we're living through immortality, all with the end goal that when we meet God in the end, he won't be a stranger. And that at the end of our life we might get to have a face to face conversation and he will look at us and say, you came to know me through the tragedy. And you might not have gotten any answer through any part of your life. And you might still show up in heaven and you might have that conversation with God and you might say, God, I need answers. And he might grab you by your cheeks and say, oh, it wasn't about the answers. It was about you coming to know me this entire process of your life.
- [58:45]
A
And I this reminded me of this. Let me just say this. I talked to a friend one time who's he is an evangelical Christian. And we were talking about the. The Trinity. And there's a big emphasis in traditional Christianity on the mystery of the Trinity. And I said to him, I was like, talk to me about that mystery of the. Of the Trinity, you know? And he just said, oh, the mystery is actually. And he gave this analogy, and he was just like, what if there was a dad who knew physics really, really well, and his daughter came in to try and understand physics, and she jumped up on his lap and sat there close, and he tried to explain physics to her, and in the end she didn't understand physics. She was like, I still don't get it, and hops down and runs and plays. And he says, because the point of it wasn't understanding physics. The point of it was time and the embrace of the Father. And sometimes mystery leads us to spend time with the Father, and tragedy leads us to spend time with the Father. That knowledge was not the goal. Relationship was the goal.
- [59:46]
B
And I hate to say that I do think that there will be questions that we ask through our time in mortality that never will get answered. And we'll never know the reason why, and we'll never understand why it happened. And we might keep those questions until we see God again on the other side. But what I love the Most about chapter 42 is that if this is a lesson on a full lifetime, the ending is so beautiful.
- [60:15]
A
The ending's a promise.
- [60:16]
B
The ending is a promise that in the end, the Lord turned the captivity of Job or humanity, or you. And when he prayed for his friends, and also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. And it's true, the answers might not come in mortality, and things might not get replaced the way you hope they did. And you might lose things in this life that you will never get back in this life. And sometimes you will lose not things, but people, and you will not get those back in your time in mortality. But how beautiful is verse number 11 when you imagine. Because I don't think that this is a verse about Job and his life, I think this is a verse about us. And heaven then came there unto him all his brethren and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and they did eat bread with him in his house, and they bemoaned him and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. Every man also gave him a piece of money and everyone an earring of gold. So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning. And I. I Hope. And I know that that will be heaven. That all of the people and all of our family that we have lost or that we miss and all the people that we were acquainted with before, they will come down and we will sit at a table and we will offer each other gifts, and we will break bread together in heaven one day. And we will sit there and they will comfort us, and we them. And the Lord will bless us double fold in the end than he did in the beginning.
- [62:07]
A
Yeah. In that very, very last verse, the chapter 17, that's. That's the promise. So Job died, or you could say in the end, all of us will be old and full of days. Chapter one left him empty. And the end chapter, he's full. Right. And that's a. That's a promise. That's a. That's a hope. That is who God is. So we might not know all the whys, but we do. We do know who he is and what he's. What he's promised. So it's. It's a good book of hope. It helps you feel seen in your. In your trial. It gives you the. The strengthening advice to trust in the character and the heart of God. And then it gives you the promise of what God intends to do through it all. Next week, the Psalms. So we'll be excited about that and we'll see you next week.