Dixon, Larry: Ministry From Job 02 ~ Job

But, uh, please pray for our school. Uh, the corporate name is Columbia International University. It's composed of Columbia Bible College, which is the undergraduate division, and Columbia Biblical Seminary, which is where I teach. I teach in the seminary. The institution as a whole is in some financial need, which is true of a lot of seminaries these days, especially some of the, uh, evangelic- smaller evangelical ones. So I'd really appreciate your praying for us, uh, and pray for our president, our uni- university, Dr. George Murray. Wonderful man, was the president of TEAM, the Evangelical Alliance, uh, mission organization, before he became, uh, CIU's president, uh, I think about two years ago. He's got a tough job to, uh, share, shoulder the burden of the financial needs of the school and all the rest. So if you think of praying for us, we really appreciate it. I'm also on a search committee for a new seminary dean. Our seminary dean is a godly man, uh, who has served us for twelve years, Dr. Ken Mulholland, wonderful believer who is fighting terminal cancer. So he has, uh, stepped aside as dean, and we have a, a interim dean at this point. But I'm part of a committee of about eight faculty that are going through the process of starting to search for a new seminary dean, and we need the Lord's wisdom. Um, as you can imagine, that's a very, very important position to have the right person called of God wanting to serve in that way. So those are two things that I would ask you to pray for. Pray for the financial needs of the school, and uh, pray for a seminary dean. That'd be great. George Murray? If he is, I didn't, I wasn't aware of it. Yeah. Uh, did I tell you that his youngest daughter is marrying my son? You talk about job security. His younger, youngest daughter is named Julie, and uh, our son Brian is twenty three, and I think Julie's maybe a year younger than Brian. They're getting married June twenty ninth. Get the boy out of the house, get him out of the house. I'm just kidding, but we're just... Yeah, oh yeah, we know, we know. Just so thankful for that situation, that relationship, a very godly relationship between the two of them. We're very thankful for that. Well, I'm happy to be with you tonight, and I hope that you'll forgive my kind of gravelly voice. I've been fighting the flu and pretty much have basically given up at this point. Let it go ahead and run its course and just do to me what it will. But, uh, let me invite you to turn to the book of, uh, Job as we continue our study, and believe it or not, we're actually going to get into, uh, the advice of the first friend, Eliphaz, uh, tonight as we work in this book together. And we've covered a whole lot of ground, and I won't go back and review all of that. What I'd like to do is begin by looking at Job chapter two, verses eleven through thirteen, as we talk about, first of all, the quote-unquote ministry of Job's friends, which begins in chapter two, verse eleven. Let me read those few verses and then, uh, pray for it. Job chapter two verse eleven, When Job's three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him. They began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him because they saw how great his suffering was. Let's pray. Lord, we are not promised deliverance from suffering in this world. In fact, we are told the very opposite, that it has been, um, given to us to not only believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but to suffer for his name's sake, that we're to walk in his steps. Lord, forgive us when we act as if or believe as if you owe us health or wealth or comfort. But Lord, we pray you might encourage us as we think not so much about Job and his suffering, but about his three friends in this passage and subsequent chapters, as for whatever reason, they find it important and necessary to break their godly silence and begin to lecture their friends. Lord, give us wisdom as we speak to each other when we are in pain, that we might seek your truth, and we might not simply defend our own theologies and our own way of understanding you, but we might speak the words of God concerning. Lord, encourage us in our study tonight. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. I believe I mentioned last week, as we just started getting into this, that Job's friends and Job's responses, their lectures and his responses, take up about thirty chapters of this forty-two chapter book. We're not looking so much at Job's responses. That would be a wonderful study in and of itself, but we're going to focus on what his friends say and why they say what they say. And I believe we made the point last week that not all that the Bible records is expressing the direct mind of God. We have the foolish statement of ungodly people, we have the foolish statements of godly people, and I believe we need discernment as we read the book of Job to figure out what of their advice is of God and what is coming out of the way they're looking at things, and they are rebuked at the end of the book, I believe, by the Lord himself, when he says to Eliphaz, I'm angry with you and your two friends. You've not spoken of me what is right as my servant Job has. Now go and ask Job to pray for you, and I will not deal with you according to your folly. Those are pretty strong words. So all that they say to Job, I would argue from Job forty two seven, is not of God. In fact, God calls it folly. How do we distinguish the folly from the wisdom? And that's often difficult. I'm not sure we can do it in perfectly, by any stretch of the imagination, but we can at least notice a few things that they do say. Please notice very briefly in chapter two verses eleven through thirteen what Job's friends do right. What they do right is they sit with him for seven days and seven nights in silence. They don't say a word to him. They're simply with him. They're with him. And maybe there are situations in your life that you can think back on, and I know in my life that I can think back on, thank the Lord, not a lot of circumstances, but several, where I was just so happy believers were just there. Their geographical proximity was far more important than their theological luxury or their biblical comfort, just to have them there and know that I could count on them. By the way, I do invite your participation, or I get going in the future and forget you might have something to say, but, uh, I know some of you pretty well, so don't hold back, Stan, okay? Seems to me here in chapter two, verses eleven through thirteen, the friends are to be commended. They travel from a distance, they agree to meet their friend Job, and when they see him down the road, where is he? He's on the ash heap, scraping his boils with a broken piece of, pieces of, uh, pottery. They look at him, and I think they probably said, is that even a man? He is in such dire straits. Verse thirteen, they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him. They saw how great his suffering was. It's interesting to imagine what those seven days and seven nights were like for those friends. Did they eat meals? You saying that seriously? And then left. And then he was, they made the estimate he was a clone and then left. He was going this way. So they aggravated and aggravated. Not till he start talking, right? Right. You know what? I, I suspect that I would be very much like them, that I'm sure they prayed for him, but, uh, I, I, I imagine the prayers they prayed for him were of the same kind of, uh, material as what they later lecture him about. And, and I mean, sometimes we're, we're underhanded in the way we pray for each other, right? Sometimes we lecture each other through prayer. You ever heard that? You ever been in a meeting somewhere where somebody prayed and you knew that person's prayer was directed at one person in the, in the meeting? Yeah, yeah, but they're going after one person. I've been in a meeting like that. I was sad. It wasn't, it wasn't me. Yeah, I would think so. I mean, you can't go seven days and seven nights without anyone. It is interesting, though, it doesn't say they prayed for him here. They just sat with him in silence. I, I am, I am impressed, though, with the fact that they are with him for seven days and seven nights. See, for me, I would find it a lot easier and a lot quicker to go to someone suffering, pray, maybe pray a wonderful prayer, give him a hug, leave him a few coins, and leave. I mean, I find that pretty easy, but to be with him in all, you know, in the seven days and seven nights of pain, I think that'd be quite a challenge. I'm suggesting that the, in a sense, the only thing these friends did right was to be with him in silence and to care, uh, for him. There's a wonderful book I'd highly recommend by Lee Strobel called The Case for Faith. He's written several books. The first book he wrote, I think, was called The Case for Christ, which is an excellent book to loan to a thinking non-Christian. It gives the evidence for the person of Christ. This is called The Case for Faith. I would highly recommend it. Did I mention it last week to you? Uh, let me tell you in thirty seconds or less what Lee Strobel does. He goes and interviews Charles Templeton, who was the, who was the best friend of Billy Graham when they were in college. Templeton had crusades all over the States and Canada. Thousands of people came to Christ. Billy Graham said that his best friend, Chuck Templeton, was the evangelist that God should have chosen, and said God chose second best, God chose me, Billy Graham. Templeton has completely abandoned the Christian faith. He's written about it several times. His most recent book, he's near death, by the way, with Alzheimer's. His most recent book is called Farewell to God, and he gives his reasons for turning away from the Christian faith. Very, very sad. In this book, Scoble gets the chance to interview Templeton and basically say, why have you abandoned the Christian faith? And Templeton says part of the reason was a picture he saw, I think it was in a, in a Time or a Newsweek, of a young African woman holding in her arms her dead baby. She is looking into the sky with a face that says, all we needed was a little rain. And that image that, that Templeton saw caused him to begin to doubt the goodness of God. And the whole issue of suffering and, and pain in the world and evil caused him to turn away from the Christian faith. Anyway, what Strobel does is go to some top experts in theology and scripture and other things and ask them, how would you respond to Templeton? So that's, uh, part of what the book is. He interviews the Catholic, uh, scholar Peter Krest on this issue, and asks Krest the following question. He said, if that young African mother were here right now, who lost her baby, what would you say to her? Krest didn't hesitate. Nothing, he said simply. Strobel writes, I blinked in disbelief. Nothing? Not at first, anyway, he said. I'd let her talk to me. The founder of an organization for the multiple handicapped says that he works with a handicap for a very selfish reason. They teach him something much more valuable than he could ever keep then, namely who he is. That sounds sentimental, but it's true. Kress says, one of my four children is moderately handicapped, and I've learned more from her than from the other three. I've, I've learned that I'm handicapped and that we're all handicapped, and listening to her helps me to understand myself. So the first thing we need to do with this woman is to listen to her, to be aware of her, to see her pain, to feel her pain. We live in a relative bubble of comfort, and we look at pain as an observer, as a philosophical puzzle or theological problem. That's the wrong way to look at pain. The thing to do with pain is to enter it, be one with her, and then you learn something from it. In fact, Kreft says it's significant that most objections to the existence of God from the problem of suffering come from outside observers who are quite comfortable, whereas those who actually suffer are, as often as not, made into stronger believers by their suffering. Isn't that a great statement? Basically saying, I, I think that we are to be students of those who are in pain. What are they learning about God? What are they learning about the brevity of this life? What are they learning about God's mercy and so on? It seems to me in chapter three, beginning of chapter three, where Job curses the day of his birth, he, uh, he says things that Eliphaz and the other two friends simply can't hear. They cannot listen to Job in pain. They must respond. They must talk back. They must speak. They must explain. They must philosophize. They must give an explanation, a doctrinal explanation for Job's suffering. So let's dive into the first friend. I refer to this as the Exhortations of Eliphaz, the Exhortations of Eliphaz, and they cover four chapters, chapters four and five, fifteen, and twenty two. Now, obviously, we can't go through all the material in those chapters, so I am being very selective as we look at what Eliphaz says to Job, and I divide them into rounds, kind of like it's a boxing match, okay? Notice round one. Let's look at, uh, Job chapter four, verses one through six. Job four one through six. Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied, if someone ventures a word with you, will you be impatient? But who can keep from speaking? Think how you have instructed many, how you have strengthened feeble hands. Your words have supported those who stumbled. You have strengthened faltering knees, but now trouble comes to you and you are discouraged. It strikes you and you are dismayed. Should not your piety, that is your godliness, be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope? I hear Eliphaz saying, Job, you need to practice what you preach. You need to practice what you preach. You are being a hypocrite. You're not practicing what you've been telling others. Now, from what we know so far in the book of Job, is he right? I don't think so either. I mean, I mean, apart from Job's complaints in chapter three, where he's in great despair of soul, chapters one and two tell us quite clearly, in all this, Job did not sin, didn't deny God. Yes. Mm-hmm. Sure. Sure. Exactly. Depression, disillusionment, despairment. Uh. The good news is he's got a boy, the bad news is he's stillborn. He says, I would have preferred that. That would have been better for me. Heard about a man who was telling his friend about what a wonderful doctor he had. He said this, if you can't afford the operation, he touches up the X-rays. We, we don't need somebody to touch up the X-rays, right? We need the truth. We need the truth. The question is, is Eliphaz speaking the truth to Job here? Uh, I'm not sure that he is. I'm not sure that he is. He's saying, you're being a hypocrite, you're not practicing what you preach. I don't know if I showed you this cartoon before, but, and you can't read it, so you have to kind of tr- trust me here. Charlie Brown. Did I show you this too? No. Charlie Brown says, nine home runs in a row. Good grief, what can I do? We're getting slaughtered again, Schroeder. I don't know what to do. Why do we have to suffer like this? And Schroeder says, man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. Charlie Brown says, what? Linus says, he's quoting from the book of Job, Charlie Brown, seventh verse, fifth chapter. Actually, the problem of suffering is a very profound one, and Lucy pipes up, if a person has bad luck, it's because he's done something wrong. That's what I always say. Pig Finn comes back and says, well, that's what Job's friends told him, but I doubt if. Lucy says, what about Job's wife? I don't think she gets enough credit. And then they all go at it. One says, I think a person who never suffers never matures. Suffering is actually very important. Lucy says, who wants to suffer? Don't be ridiculous. One kid says, but pain is a part of life, Anne. Another says, a person who seeks only the patience of Job reveals that he knows very little of the book. Now, the way I see it, and the last frame has Charlie Brand saying, I don't have a ball team, I have a theological seminary. Well, we can come up with our explanations, can't we? Why people suffer. And Eliphaz is, is saying, you know, you, you need to put into practice what you preach. Somehow you're not, you're not putting into practice what you preach. Notice the second, uh, statement that he makes, beginning in verse seven of chapter four. Eliphaz says, consider now who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? What world is that man living in? As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it. And he goes on. I think he's saying the righteous don't go through things like this. They don't? They don't? Of course, the martyrs have shown up. What's that? The martyrs haven't shown up at this point. That is ridiculous. Sure. Sure, of course. Oh, I mean, Cain slew his brother Abel, righteous Abel. Uh, and God allowed it to take place. Righteous people suffer, righteous people die. They become, uh, as Jesus teaches, I think, in Luke thirteen, victims of violent accidents and victims of vicious crimes. It happens. And, uh, but Eliphaz is saying, you know what, this is not what normally happens to righteous people. Now, again, he's coming from the perspective of what I call the principle of divine earthly retribution. It's a principle that flows through the whole book of Job. It even extends into the New Testament. The principle of divine earthly retribution. Here it is. It's the idea that if you love God and serve God, you'll have a physically comfortable earthly life, and you'll die happy. If, however, you hate God and turn away from God and are wicked, you will have pain and trouble your whole life long. The only problem with that kind of syllogism or that way of thinking is it's just not true to real. Righteous people take it on the chin all the time, and wicked people live to ripe old ages, dying comfortably in their sleep, right? The psalmist struggled with that in a group of psalms called the Problem of Evil Psalm. When the psalmist says, I look at the wicked, I see them prospering, and I, I wonder, Lord, where are you? Why don't you do something? The righteous are being pursued, they're being persecuted, and Lord, you stand by and watch. And then David says, and then I entered your sanctuary. In other words, he, he got the long view on the problem of evil. In this brief earthly life, wicked people may indeed prosper. But what, what is, what are the seventy years of this brief earthly life compared to eternity? And I think the psalmist helps remind us of that. I would suggest Job's friends are coming from this principle of divine earthly restitution or retribution, that you get what you deserve in this life. Simply not true. Not true. Righteous people endure the same misfortunes and difficulties, calamities, catastrophes as unrighteous people. Unrighteous people often look like their lives are blessed, that they entered life with a, what we say, a silver spoon in their mouth, and they, and they live wonderful, happy lives and don't even give a thought to God. So you wonder what world Eliphaz is living in when he says the righteous just don't go through things like this. Oh yes, they do. Yes, they do. Jot down in your notes somewhere, Luke thirteen one to five. Luke thirteen one to five. We may look at that at some future point, but you're, you know that passage. It's where the Galileans said to Jesus, did you hear about the, your countrymen who were slain by Pilate when they were worshiping God? And Jesus says, do you think they were more wicked than other Galileans that they died this way? I tell you, no, unless you repent, you'll likewise perish. And then Jesus himself says, how about those eighteen upon whom the Tower of Siloam fell, a dozen and a half people killed when a tower toppled over them, on top of them. Jesus said, do you think they were more wicked than others if they die that way? I tell you no, unless you repent, you'll likewise perish. I think he's saying, uh, in brief, we live in a very dangerous world. We live in a dangerous world where even God's people, even in the process of worship, can become victims of a vicious crime. We need only think in the last few years of churches where gunmen have burst in, in this country as well as in other countries, and just mowed down Christians who are at worship. You think of the Columbine situation, those two young men taking all those lives, Carrie Burnell's testimony, and so on. And we think of Christians who become victims of violent accidents, whether it's a car accident, whether it's a tower falling on them, or whatever. Uh, did they deserve what they got? LFS is basically saying you get what you deserve, what you deserve. And because you are getting so much bad stuff, Job, there must be something wrong in your life. Righteous people don't suffer this way. Notice a third statement that Eliphaz makes, and this is still in chapter four, verses twelve through seventeen. Let's look at those verses. Chapter four, verse twelve: a word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it. This is Eliphaz. Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on men, fear and trembling seized me, made all my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end. It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice. Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his maker? What is it Eliphaz is saying? I think he's saying, I have had a vision from God. I've had a vision from the Lord. What do you think? He had some experience, didn't he? Or, or he had some kind of human experience, which is pos- I mean, he could have had a hallucination. Could be a lot of different things, but the bottom line is he said, I've had a vision from the Lord. Now, why does he tell Job that in verses twelve through seventeen? Why do you think he, he uses this? Why does he even relate that event to Job? Okay, what else? Is there power in our, is there more power in our words when we can back it up with a supernatural experience? For many people, yes. So what Eliphaz is saying is essentially, Job, this isn't just my opinion. I had a visitation from God. I had a visitation from a spirit. Glided past my face, a hair on the back of my neck stood up. It was in the middle of the night. And not only did I see that spirit, wonder how you could see a spirit, not only did I see that spirit, it spoke to me. What did it say? Verse, verse seventeen is in quotation marks. Can a mortal be more righteous than God? Can a man be more pure than his maker? What's Eliphaz doing? He's saying I had a supernatural experience. This is from God. Your problem is you're trying to be more righteous than your maker. Now, we don't have Christians that go around telling stories like that, do we? Oh, we sure do. Walk into a Christian bookstore, look at some of the books that are for sale, unless it's a, a family that owns the bookstore and they're very judicious in the books they carry. There's a writer by the name of, uh, Mary Baxter who's written two books. One's called A Divine Revelation of Heaven, and the other's called A Divine Revelation of Hell. This is a grandmother, I think, in Tennessee, who believes that she was literally transported to hell and later literally transported to heaven, and she writes about it in those two books. I studied both her books because th- those books have been bestsellers for about ten years. Christians buy them up because she's claiming she's gone to heaven and she's gone to hell. If you look at them carefully, what she teaches is not true according to scripture. She gets very close to teaching us salvation by works. She talks about her visit to heaven, and she said she saw storehouses of blessing. If we'd only pray, God would shower down blessings upon us. Name it, claim it, right? If you only ask, he'll give. Uh, talks about all kinds of things, talks about, uh, uh, just some strange, uh, doctrinal kind of issues, but she says she had these experiences. How are we to evaluate something like that? There's only one way, by scripture itself. Scripture is our final authority, not people's experiences, not even our own experience. I've often wondered, what would I, what would I do, what would I say if on some occasion I actually had an angel visit me? You ever thought about that? There are books on the market now, most of them new age type books, that try to get people to find out what the name of their guardian angel is. There are books that talk about how to hug your guardian angel. That's dangerous stuff. Our attention is not to be given to angels, and we know that Satan masquerades, masquerades as an angel of light. He doesn't look like a, a skinny little cartoon character with a pitchfork and red leotard. No, he masquerades as an angel of light. There are books talking about how we can get in touch with our guardian angels. We're not to seek experiences with angels. But what would happen if God actually allowed you or me to have a conversation with an angel? You ever thought about that? Sure. fourteen, I think. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And what did he get for his, for his experience? Thorn in the flesh. He prayed three times, God, please take this away, and each time God says, no, my grace is sufficient for you. Yeah, so if you want, if you want a major thorn in the flesh, be seeking those extra experiences like that. But, but even if you or I did have an experience with an angel, we must evaluate that on the basis of the word of God. Galatians chapter one says that even if we apostles or an angel from heaven were to come and preach a gospel other than the one we've already preached to you, let him be accursed. We need to be very careful. And people, there are a lot of, uh, Christians that are experience junkies. You know what I mean by that? Experience junkies. They're looking for the next experience. They're looking for that next supernatural kind of flutter of their spirit. Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's a whole... yeah. Whole another subject, isn't it? No one knows the day or the hour. I have a book, I have several books in my library at school. One is called, uh, Jesus will return. The rapture will be in nineteen eighty eight. I don't think it happened. Uh, I, I find it amazing those books never come with a money back guarantee. Because if the writer is right, he's not going to be there to pay back, right? And if he's wrong, he shouldn't take our money anyway. But there are all kinds of people trying to predict when Jesus is going to come back, and Harold Camping did it a few years ago. Nineteen ninety was the, was the year that he predicted. Camping has gotten to all kinds of things now. He's the president of Family Radio. He now says that the church is dead. We're to abandon our churches. We're all to turn away from our churches. He's become cultic, I think. Harold Camping of Family Radio. It's very sad. When we get into those areas of speculation, or when we get in those areas of experiences with spirits or angels or all the rest, we need to be very careful. And there are Christians who'll say, God spoke to me and told me to say thus and so to you. Don't let those people intimidate you. Don't let them intimidate you. Evaluate what they say. If they're levitating in front of you, if they're floating off the ground. I saw a magician who could levitate. You ever seen that? It's a trick. I'm not sure how he does it, but he can actually lift up from the earth. People watch him. He lifts up about four inches off the ground. As far as you can tell, there are no cables. There's a trick to it, and I don't know how he does it, but people are gullible, right? Sometimes we're gullible. So people say, God spoke to me and he told me to tell you. If I had anybody come to me like that, you know what I'd do? I'd stop them in mid-sentence, and I'd say, wait a minute, unless you're prepared to give your life for the very next sentence you're going to say, you better not say it. Because to claim that you're speaking God's word when he is not speaking through you is blasphemy and worthy of death. Now, what would you like to share with me? Need to be very, very careful. And our authority is scripture to evaluate what's being said. How much of scripture did Job's friends have? I, perhaps none. But they're still responsible for what they say, and though Eliphaz, we can take him at his word, had some kind of spiritual experience, I'm not sure that what he says here is actually of God. Sometimes we probably should say that, but what I want to say to somebody, show me chapter and verse. The Bible, the Bible claims for itself to be our sufficient source for what we need for living a truly godly life. I don't need extra biblical revelation. It's not contrary to the word, right? Holy Spirit will never, never contradict himself in the, in the word of God. Sure, I believe God guides us, he burdens us, he leads us, he m- God moves in circumstances of our life, but I, I want in, in my life, I want to be a lot less dogmatic in my interpretation of those things than in the interpretation of the Word of God. Because none of us is perfect as an interpreter of our circumstances, right? Somebody, uh, gave me the illustration the other day. It was a complicated discussion, but the illustration they gave was pretty easy. It's, it's what they call the philosopher's chicken. And they said, a lot of people look at God this way, like a chicken who every day is being fed grain from its owner, and the chicken thinks to himself, I've got an owner who really loves me, right? Every day, day after day, without fail, that, that grain, that water comes, and that chicken says, you know, life is good, and my master is good, until one day the master comes, grabs that chicken by the neck, whacks off its head. The point the writer was trying to make is, uh, some people look at God that way. That is, God does a lot of good things, but how do we know in the end he's not going to chop our heads off? He's evil, right? Uh, well, we know by Calvary, don't we? I mean, there are a lot of, lot of evidences why we believe we can trust in God. I'm not sure why I raised that illustration exactly. You ever done that? Uh, you know, the part about that last statement, but it comes from, it comes from, uh, Christian and I have to do. You ever done that? Uh, you know, the part about that last statement, but the, it comes from, it comes from, uh, Christian and I have to do. I'm not sure that I'd say it comes... I, I know what you're saying, Stan. Are you gonna put the psalmist in that category? If I could only be as spiritually mature as David, I'd be, I'd be really happy. Does David ever feel abandoned by God? So I think it's part of the normal Christian life that we, we question God's goodness, just John, just like Job, and we need to be instructed. I think it's part of, part of being human that, that we, we do that, and it doesn't mean we're right in doing that, but I think it's part of the human condition to do that. Sure, and Job does it, but it's interesting, I think, that his friends can't tolerate him doing that, right? I mean, how would you or I react in the presence of a Christian who is really going through a very deep time, and they are angry as they can be at God? How would we deal with that person? Would we quote some Bible verses about blaspheming God or being angry with God? What would we do? Uh, it seems, I mean, I'm not sure that we can say always exactly what we would do, but it seems to me that God gives us freedom to, to let him know how we feel and is very patient for us to come around to his way of thinking and understanding that he has, uh, he has all wisdom and he's sovereign. Um. Somebody said that one, one of the reasons that a lot of people don't even attend church is because they're fearful that if they start to ask those kind of why questions, they'll be shot down in flames, folks. Think that's true? Sometimes it's true. Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Instead of letting people know, you can, you can ask any question you want. We may not have all the answers, and we may not be giving you answers at, at a particular moment, but we will pray for you and, and love you and, uh, and help you find answers to your questions. When he does a lot of complaining, doesn't he? Yeah. I do think that, yeah, but I think I probably shouldn't complain more than, and he would have to do everything, and uh, he can't seem to think that it's nothing to go off of I, I hope I've earned the right to moderately dis- disagree with you, if I can do that. Do we not find the Lord Jesus himself questioning his father in the Garden of Gethsemane, and on the cross saying, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Now, I know he's, he's the divine son of God, I realize that, but, and I'm, I think I understand what you're saying, that where we want to wind up as Christians is trusting God. What, what, what bothers me a little bit, um, is that there are Christians who are like Stoics. Stoicism was a philosophy that said, I am firm as a rock, nothing will move me. I will not feel, I will not react, I will not get upset, I will just keep plugging ahead. I don't see that as the normal Christian life. I don't see that modeled by the apostles or by the psalmist or by Jesus. D- does that make sense, what I'm sharing with you? Yeah, exactly, exactly. But, but I'm saying I- I'm thankful that we have a number of characters in the Bible, individuals who responded, who responded to circumstances so much like the way I respond. Now, what we can say is God is never wrong, and they come around to seeing God is never wrong. He's never, he's never made a mistake. What's that? I, I wonder sometimes that part of the advice Job's friends give is that they're protecting God, right? They're like putting a fence around God. They're saying, Job, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait. Questions you're asking, they're attacking God. You can't attack God. Nobody who really loves the Lord talks that way. You follow me? I think they're coming from that perspective, as if God is like a fragile porcelain figurine, right? In our house, we have a display case with Hummels in it. You know what a Hummel is? Hummels are these little statue kind of character things. Apparently worth a lot of money. I avoid that area of the house. Being the klutz that I am, I can just imagine one day. And my, my wife Linda comes from a family, her mom is from Germany and collected a whole bunch of these, and uh, uh, one day she had about thirty on a shelf over the couch. Linda's mom did. Linda's mom was vacuuming, and the vacuum went whoop, and they all fell and broke, right? I'm so glad it wasn't me. I'm so glad I didn't do it. I'm so glad my wife didn't do it, right? I think Job's friends think God would break. If you say things like that about God, God is fragile. We got to protect him. We don't have to protect God. And, uh, I- I'm suggesting, I mean, I- I think there's room for disagreement, but I'm suggesting that the friends are motivated a bit by that. Let me give you one more point, and we're done for tonight, that is. Then I need to ask you a question before we close. Uh, notice the last point that he makes in round one, chapter five, seventeen through twenty seven. I believe he says you're being disciplined by God. Look at verse seventeen, Job five seventeen. Blessed is the man whom God corrects. So do not despise the discipline of the Almighty, for he wounds, but he also binds up. He injures, but his hands also heal. For six calamities he will rescue you, in seven no harm will befall you. I believe Eliphaz is saying to Job, you're under God's discipline. Was he? There is nothing, nothing in this text that indicates that. So why did he express that opinion? Because he's coming from this philosophy that says, if you're undergoing terrible calamity, you, you are obviously under God's judgment. You are being disciplined by God. So respond to his discipline, repent of your sin, as Eliphaz will say later, and get right with God. I would suggest his advice is not godly advice. Job is not under God's discipline. And though Job has much to learn in the book and, and gets a pretty sound verbal something from God in, uh, chapters, uh, what, thirty eight through forty one, I think, um, and realizes that he has, uh...