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Hey, Bible nerds. This is Dr. Manny Arango, and I'm your host for the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. This podcast follows a Bible reading plan we created to help you read the entire Bible in a year. You can head to the show notes or thebibledepartment.com to download our reading plan and join the Journey family. Welcome to day 318 here at the Bible Department. I'm so excited that we get to walk through job chapters 20 to 21 together today. Just two chapters of Job on the docket for today. If you haven't done the reading, I want to challenge you. Stop the video. Pause the audio. Go get the reading done. Solid, solid reading. And if I could be transparent, honest, vulnerable, I would actually admit that the more and more and more I really walk through the Book of Job, the more I read it, especially something about reading it this time around, I begin to realize that a lot of my internal dialogue sounds a lot like Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zofar. And so this book has really challenged me. I don't know if it's been challenging you. It's been stretching me and honestly helping me to realize that a lot of my understanding of the world, a lot of my philosophy about. About how the world works is too simple, is a little too black and white. And so the book's been challenging me. I hope it's been challenging you. Today we got two what I think are challenging chapters, not in terms of they're complicated, but in terms of, I think, the message that it has for our soul and the challenge that it gives us to just think in a more nuanced, in a more complex way. So with no further ado, like, every day, we're gonna look at context clues, then nerdy nuggets. I got five nerdy nuggets for you today. And then we're gonna leave off the episode with a timeless truth. So I'm pumped. Let's dive into our context clue. Just one big context clue, nothing super profound or complicated today. Job chapter 20 is gonna be Zophar's speech. And then job chapter 21 is gonna be Job's response to Zophar. Okay, now, I just want to remind everybody that this speech and then response by Job fits within the larger context of cycle number two, dialogue cycle number two. This started in job chapter 15. Okay, so if I could give you just a mini map of this subsection. Eliphaz is going to speak in job 15, and then job's going to respond in job 16, 17, and then Bildad is going to talk in job 18, and then job is going to respond in job 19. Obviously, we looked at that yesterday. And then today, Zophar is going to give a speech in chapter 20, and then Job's going to respond in chapter 21. So each cycle is eliphaz. Job, Bildad, Job. Zophar, Job. Okay, so this is cycle number two, and we are looking at Zophar's speech and then Job's response. All right, let's dive into our nerdy nuggets for the day. I got five for you. First, Zophar's entire idea is essentially that God always punishes the wicked. Okay? God always punishes the wicked. And again, on the surface, like, not a bad idea. Job's actually going to debunk that idea in a pretty brilliant move, but that God all always punishes the wicked. I actually think if I went out right now and I just started telling people, God always punishes the wicked, doesn't he? Right. Doesn't God always punish the wicked? Most people would say, yeah, and you would be shocked that you're agreeing with a character in the Bible that is not necessarily being framed as someone with truth. And so Zophar is going to make this argument that God always punishes the wicked. And so I, in my own personal life, have been challenged by reading this because I'm realizing, yeah, Job actually is gonna debunk this, and it's a legitimate argument. Okay? So God always punishes the wicked, therefore. Hey, this is the crux of Zophar's argument. Therefore, Job is wicked. Since God always punishes the wicked and Job's being punished, or it certainly looks like this is punishment, Job must be wicked. This is what I would call easy theology. I'm not gonna lie. I have gotten caught in the trap of easy theology. Okay? And what I began to realize is that simple. Not simple in terms of just, like, plain or easy to understand, but simple in terms of like, overly simplistic. Simple and lazy answers hurt people. Simple and lazy answers will always end up hurting people. You know, I can't tell you how many funerals I've been to or I've listened to people talk. Once tragedy hits, and pastors, ministers, representatives of God's church say things that I think are really, really, really hurtful and lazy answers really do hurt people. Job is not lazy. This is the opposite of lazy. This is really, really, really combing through tons of complex philosophy and theology, and I think that it's worth it. So Zophar's Big argument. Okay, let's go to chapter 20 for ourselves is that God always punishes the wicked. Okay, let's start out in verse one, my troubled. Then Zophar the Nemethite replied, my troubled thoughts prompt me to answer because I am greatly disturbed. I hear rebuke that dishonors me and my understanding inspires me to reply. He's like, Job, the words that you're saying are just like, they're disrespectful. Like they're just, they're just like this is, this is, this is a problem. Surely you know how it has been of old ever since mankind was placed on the earth. So he's about to make a universal argument like, dude, ever since mankind was placed on the earth, that the mirth of the wicked is brief. Okay, so we're already into hey man, like the wicked die. The joy of the godless lasts but a moment. Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens in his head, touches the clouds, he will perish forever like his own dung. Okay, so the life of the wicked is the same value of. Of their poop. That is just the point of this wisdom literature is to kind of sear mental images into your. In your mind. Those who have seen him will say, where is he? Like a dream, he flies away. No more to be found, banished. Okay, so so far is going to give seven what I would say, like are pretty, I guess, analogies for how the pride of the wicked is brought down. Okay, so in chapter 20, verse 6 and 7, it's going to be from head in the clouds to being like his own dung. Okay? From head in the clouds to being like his own dung. I hope you can see that juxtaposition in verses 8 through 9 disappear like a dream or a nightmare. Okay, verse 10, children will seek help from the poor. Okay, we can read verse 10 together. It says this. His children must make amends to the poor. His own hands must give back his wealth. And then verse 11, the youthful vigor to lying in the dust. Okay, the youthful vigor that fills his bones will lie with him in the dust. I think. Okay, number one, two, three, that was number four. And then verse 12 to 14 says that for the wicked evil is sweet in the mouth, yet turned to snake's venom in the stomach. And then the sixth analogy that we get is in verse 15, swallows up riches, but then vomits them out. Okay, that's an image for what happens to the to wicked people. They swallow riches, but then they vomit them out. And then lastly, the seventh Analogy is that they will eat the fruit of his toil. Verse 18, it says this. What he toiled for, he must give back uneaten. He will not enjoy the profit from his trading. Okay, so if you were just think about that, most of us would probably go, yeah, that's exactly what it's like to be a wicked, godless person. So again, it can be easy to kind of get roped in to Eliphaz, Bildad and Zofar's arguments, thinking that they're right, but in all actuality, they are very, very wrong. Okay, family, the wait is over. My brand new book, Crushing Chaos, is out now and available everywhere. Books are sold. Literally today I walked into a Barnes and Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books a Million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient, ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. Zophar uses powerful word pictures to teach on how God humbles the wicked. And there are seven ideas here, to be specific. And we went through all seven. So third nerdy nugget for you. Job responds to direct accusations. Okay, so I'll give you a little bit of a mind map here. In this response, Job isn't just going to respond to Zophar, but he's also going to respond to all the friends. Okay, so I'll kind of map this out for you. In Job, chapter 21, verse 2, he's going to actually respond to what Eliphaz said in chapter 15, verse 11. So I want you to go ahead and compare Job 21:2 to Job 15:11. Okay, next, Job in chapter 21, verse 7 is responding to Zophar's words in chapter 20, verse 11. So for our first connection, I want you to Write down Job 21, verse 2, and Job 15:11, and compare those. And then for the second one, I want you to write down Job 21, verse 7, and then the corresponding response is to Job 2011, and I want you to compare those. Okay, then third we got chapter 21, verse 8, chapter 21, verse 8. In Job, chapter 21, verse 8. By the way, all of this is coming from chapter 21. Okay, job 21 is where job is going to respond. And I just want you to know what he's responding to. Okay, Job, chapter 21, verse 8. He's actually responding to what Bildad said in Job 18, verse 19. Next we have Job 21, verse 9. He's actually responding to what Eliphaz said in Job 15, verse 24. And you can look up both of those passages. Job, chapter 21, verse 17. Again, Job is responding to Bildad, and he's responding to Bildad's words from Job 18, 5. And then Job, chapter 21, verse 19. Job is responding to Zophar. And Zophar's words could be found in Job, chapter 20, verse 10. And then last Job, chapter 21, verse 28, Job is responding to two friends, Eliphaz in Job 15, verse 34, and Zophar in Job 12, chapter 20, 26. So Job 21:2, Job 21:7, Job 21:8, Job 21:9, Job 21:17, Job 21:19, Job 21:28. These are seven examples of where Job is responding to multiple friends, Eliphaz, Zophar, Bildad, and he's responding to things that they have said in various chapters. And there are seven of these responses. And now you kind of have a mind map for that. Okay, all right. Our fourth nerdy nugget is that crux of Job's argument is that actually, okay, there are several examples of wicked people flourishing. This is brilliant because Job is brave enough and courageous enough to admit this. Here's my pet peeve in church, when we want to hold on to what we think is like a religious idea or a spiritual idea. And so we suppress the truth, we suppress facts. It's almost like you ever talk to like a religious person and like you give them a legitimate argument for something and it's like they just pretend like the argument you gave doesn't exist. And then they over spiritualize everything. And they're like, well, God's ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. So, you know, there's no explanation for that. It's like, why? What? Wait, so Job, you know, the friend's argument says God always punishes the wicked. Everybody knows that because God is just. And then Job's like, wait, before we continue, sometimes the wicked, like, win. Like, there are all kinds of wicked people who are winning at life and like, they're fine. Wicked people sometimes live long and healthy lives with many children living without fear of judgment. This is, you know, Job, chapter 21, verse 13. As he says, they spend their days in prosperity and in peace. They go down to Sheol. And then here's some examples. Job, chapter 21, verse 17, 18. How often is it that they actually face the calamity? You say next verses 19 and 21. How often do children bear the punishment of their wicked parents? Then 21, 22, who gets to tell God who to judge and who not to? And then chapter 21, verse 23, 26. Why is it that poor and rich, wicked and unrighteous all face the same fate? Job is pointing out that the universal facts of their reward theology are by no means universal. Yes, they can go on and on and on and on about how the wicked do not prosper, but you meet any random stranger on the road and he will tell you examples that contradict you. This is the main argument of Job, chapter 21, verses 27 to 33, in addition to all the other verses that I just mentioned. And Job essentially just has the gall, the chutzpah to go, yeah, I know, I know wicked people who, who are doing just fine. That doesn't mean that we should be wicked. That doesn't mean that living a godly life is, isn't amazing. It just means that our motive has to be different. And it means that this argument that you're trying to make, you know, and by you, I mean Bill, Dad, Eliphaz, and Zofar, just falls apart. This is a straw man argument. And I think sometimes, you know, I've heard leaders use all kinds of bad reasoning to get people to do good things. I've heard people use scare tactics to get people to tithe. And I'm like, I 100% believe in tithing full blown. I tithe been tithing for a long time. But man, making people scared of like being cursed because they don't. I don't know if I could rock with that. Like, you know, you're gonna be cursed. It's like, or promising that people are gonna be rewarded, man. Ah, that makes me nervous. I'm all about people staying virgins until they're married. Like, that's smart, it's wise. But fear mongering, that creates purity culture. And then it's like, you just tell people facts. Hey, I know people who had sex before marriage and they have amazing marriages today. Like, because you can't just make the argument if you have Sex before marriage. You're going to have a terrible marriage. Like, oh, gosh, wow, okay, if you have sex before marriage, you're going to displease the Lord if you have sex before marriage. You know, there's all kinds of consequences that will happen if you have sex before marriage. But then we get into the territory of just saying things that aren't true. And I love that Job has the courage to just say, there are wicked people prospering. Guys, like, I don't know what to tell you. There wicked people are prospering. And it takes a lot of courage to say that. Okay. Fifth, and ultimately is where I think the book is really going, is that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And what does the fear of the Lord do? It makes God big and us small, which creates humility. And what does humility always confess? We don't know. We're not omniscient. We don't know. We know in part. We see, in part. We prophesy in part. I can't assume to know. I don't know. And for whatever reason, a lot of Christians are uncomfortable with the words. I. One of the things I had to tell the youth leaders at our church when I was a youth pastor is you can tell kids you don't know. If there's ever a time where you don't know something, just say to the young people, I don't know. I don't know. But you know what? I can find out. I don't know why am I Grant, especially when it comes to suffering, I don't know. And you know what? You don't know either. And none of us know. We don't know why that person died. There was a kid named Chavise who ended up dying while. While we were. While we were youth pastors. He's a young, young kid. Young kid drowned. And, you know, I didn't get up there and say anything like, well, God just need another angel. So he took Chavise. Like, that's ridiculous. That's a lazy answer that actually produces more hurt. And now I'm going to run the risk of hurting young people. And, and, and now they're going to be in their 30s still talking about, yeah, I stopped going to church because pastor man, he said, know God needed another angel. That's why God killed Chavise. Oh, my gosh. Or you just say, hey, we don't know, we don't know. And I think there's this desire to know why. And throughout the book, what is clear is that God has no intentions of telling us why, but he has an intent on telling us who. And there's answers to the who question. Maybe not the why question, but the who question. Who is behind the attack? Or the suffering Satan who desperately wants you to maintain your integrity and continue to bless the Lord Yahweh? Who wants you to turn your back on God, Satan, and who is present and with you through all suffering? The person of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. We can't always answer the why question, but we certainly can answer the who question. And who are we becoming as we go through hard seasons in life? I hope that we're coming becoming more and more and more like our Father in Heaven, like Jesus, and being formed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Here's our Thomas Truth for the day. Easy answers make religious people comfortable, but simultaneously they make people who are searching for God uncomfortable and create a barrier that is going to be a hurdle that people are going to have to jump over and they actually end up doing more damage and harm than than good. So here's what I would say. If you don't have a good apologetic argument for why there's suffering in the world, I'd rather you say nothing than say things that are going to have to then be deconstructed by people 10 years from now, 15 years from now. And that's not just true for Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. That's true for me. That's true for you. Humility creates a comfortability with being able to say we don't know. All right, family, tomorrow we got day three 19. We're going to be looking at job chapters 22, 23 and 24. I hope the last couple of days haven't ruined you. I know yesterday and today we only had two chapters to read, but tomorrow we're back up to three chapters. I'll be right here waiting to dive in to job chapters 22 to 24 with you tomorrow. Same time, same place. If you're on a streak, I'm proud of you. If you're not, I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show@thebibledepartment.com and on Instagram hebibledepartment. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.