Job Chapters 8-10 Notes

Transcription

1 Job Chapters 8-10 Notes Outline Chapter 8, Bildad Speaks 8:2-3, Job s words are hot air, for they blame God of injustice 8:4, Job s children received what they deserved 8:5-7, Job s repentance will restore him better than he s known 8:8-10, Bildad appeals to Tradition 8:11-19, Those who forget God have a weak foundation and fall 8:20-22, God restores, upholds and prospers the righteous Chapter 9, Job Responds to Bildad 9:2-3, Job acknowledges that man cannot contend with God 9:4-10, Job confesses God s power and transcendence 9:11-12, Because of God s attributes, Job cannot summon God 9:13-21, Job is innocent, God won t relent, Job must ask for mercy 9:22-24, God seems to destroy innocent and let wicket prosper 9:25-28, If Job put on a smile, that wouldn t solve his problems 9:29-31, One problem is that his friends would still condemn him 9:32-35, Job sees the need for an arbiter between him and God Chapter 10, Job Cries Out to God 10:1, Job feels free to question God in his misery 10:2-3, Seems like God condemns the innocent and favors the wicked 10:4-7, Why does God the spirit care about matters of flesh? 10:8-13, Since God intimately knows Job, why does God oppress Job? 10:14-17, If Job is guilty, then he feels like he would deserve this. But since he s innocent, he fears further affliction from God. 10:18-19, Job would rather have not been born 10:20-22, Job despairs, would find comfort in short, peaceful life Study Bildad listens to the interchange between Eliphaz and Job and expresses his displeasure with Job s response. In 8:2-3, Bildad claims that Job s arguments are vacuous by insulting him and saying he s full of hot air. Bildad makes it plain what he believes: If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression (v4). He is saying that Job s children are dead because they deserved it, and implies Job would be wise to learn his lesson and know that he suffers because he deserves it. Almost immediately, without having to work through all of his arguments, we can see that Bildad subscribes to a system of divine karma similar to Eliphaz.

2 Bildad quickly comes to his conclusion: seek God. Both Bildad and Eliphaz rest on a common foundation that God tears down the wicked and builds up the righteous, but Bildad differentiates himself by promising Job great prosperity for his repentance. If you will seek God and plead with the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation. And though your beginning was small, your latter days will be very great (Job 4:5-7). According to Bildad, for all the blessing Job enjoyed before his calamity, it is insignificant compared to what God will give him if Job would only seek God. This message is fundamentally the prosperity gospel. It takes many shapes and has been a danger throughout all of history (it is a strong force in our day), but Bildad s version of it promises material blessing for the person who seeks God. If Job were to accept Bildad s gospel, Satan would have won, for this is the exact premise of Satan s argument: people [Job specifically] only choose to follow God because of what they can get out of it. In Satan s world, there is no true allegiance to God there is only self- interest, which might cause a person to follow God, but only for personal benefit. Where Eliphaz appealed to Personal Observation (4:8), Visions (4:12-21) and Logic (4:27) to support his argument, Bildad appeals to Tradition (8:8-10) and the Created Order (8:11-19). So it may seem that Job is surrounded the case against him is building and there is little room for any other possibility. Yet Job still knows the truth (Job 9:15, 20, 21) and maintains his innocence in the face of building accusation. Up to this point, Bildad and Eliphaz share much in their rhetoric toward Job. This is their common understanding of the situation: Premise Eliphaz Bildad The innocent do not suffer 4:7 8:10,20 God punishes the wicked 4:8-9 8:4,11-19 God is just/pure 4:17 8:3 Remedy: seek God 5:8 8:5-6 The messages of Eliphaz and Bildad share much in common, but there are some important differences, too. We ve already seen how the two men appeal to different sources of authority. Their tone is markedly different as well; Bildad speaks far more forthrightly and aggressively (see 8:3-4) where Eliphaz alludes and implies. Finally, while both conclude that Job would be restored if he were to seek God, Bildad goes over the top and claims that Job will find a blessing he s never known before. Job answers in chapters 9 and 10 and addresses his friends in a similar fashion first he replies directly (chapter 9), but then he turns his attention to God and addresses him while knowing his friends listen. Job begins by agreeing to common ground with his friends, I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God? [Job 9:2; c.f. Job 4:17]. This may feel contradictory to what Job has said

3 and what he will say that he is innocent. However, it does not appear that Job means it in the same way as his friends. Job wonders how a person could contend with God. If there were a court case, could anyone be an even match with God? Job s friends mean to imply that Job is guilty, dirty and defiled before God, but Job understands that though he is a sinner, he does have (or at least thought he did) right standing with God. See page 3 of the notes on Chapters 4-7 for a reminder of Job s understanding of sin, sacrifice and reconciliation with God. The fundamental problem Job addresses in chapter 9 is that he believes he cannot have his day in court for vindication. God is transcendent (9:4-10), so where can he be found? But even if he were present, we cannot see him and call to him (9:11). And even if we could search him out, who could say anything to make him turn (9:12)? Job sees no way to contend with God, or to become right before God. Therefore, Job feels stuck, so his answer is to appeal for mercy (9:15). The rest of the chapter recounts how Job looks at the world and sees disaster for all, or worse, calamity for the innocent and prosperity for the wicked. Job is the innocent man who is oppressed by God, and he sees no hope in grinning and bearing the pain [9:27]. What Job wants is a swift end or a way to have God take his rod away [9:34]. Since God is not a man, Job senses that he needs arbiter [9:33] who can intercede and contend with both man and God. So, while Job does not understand what we do today about the Son of God, Job senses the need for an intercessor someone who might lay his hand on us both. In chapter 10, Job speaks to God again, asking many questions and trying to work through understanding his situation. Why does the world seem backwards, that God despises the godly and favors the wicked? Why would God, a spirit, care about matters of the flesh? Why would God destroy a creature he so intimately knows and created? If Job had sinned and deserved his suffering, then he accepts his guilt and punishment (10:14-15), but it frightens Job that he is innocent and afflicted. Since that is true, Job believes that God will rail against him again if he picks himself up and tries to move on in life (10:15-17). The chapter ends with Job lamenting his birth once again. He asks God to leave him alone so that he might quickly die and be released from his loathing. Job s despair leads him to believe that he would be happiest if he could have a short time of peace before he dies (10:20).

4 Gospel Glimpses One of the goals of this study is to see Christ and his gospel as it appears in the book of Job. Here are a few for these chapters: 1) Appeal for Mercy Job has acknowledged that all he s endured has come from God. Thus, he knows that if his condition were to improve, that would need to be from God as well. Job concludes that his only course of action is to appeal for mercy to my Judge [Job 9:15]. This is precisely the call of faith that God desires. When a person knows that they do not have it within to save themselves, and that they must appeal to God for mercy, that is when God gives the grace of salvation. Much could be said about mercy in the gospel, but consider the words of Jesus in Luke 18: Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get. But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner! I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted [Luke 18:10-14]. 2) White as Snow A core concept of the gospel is finding forgiveness for our sins against God. Those sins corrupt and dirty us before God, and we need to be purified of that corruption before we can be in God s presence again. Job alludes to this in 9:30 when he says, If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye. When speaking to a sinful Israel through the prophet Isaiah, God promises that he can make our sin stained souls clean once again: Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool [Isaiah 1:18]. The gospel proclaims that it is by the blood of Christ that we are made clean and can find forgiveness from God. It is our sin that brought Jesus to the cross to bleed and die that we could have life (Romans 3:23-26). The book of Revelation portrays the image of the blood of Jesus making us clean, They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb [Rev 7:14].

5 3) The Arbiter For [God] is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together. There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both [Job 9:32-33]. Job recognizes that he is unlike God and cannot contend with him God is other God is spirit, and we cannot stand before him on our own. Our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). Man needs someone to come between him and God, someone who is like us both, and someone who might lay hands on us both. Job was looking for that one who could bridge the gap and relate to both man and God. Job was asking for Jesus Christ, who is our intercessor. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time [1 Timothy 2:5-6]. 4) Eyes of Flesh With a theme that is similar to Job 9:32-33, Job asks God, Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees? Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man s years? [Job 10:4-5]. God is not like us, yet as an integral part of the story of salvation, he sent his only Son to be born in the flesh and crucified in the flesh. The answer to Job s rhetorical question was an obvious no, but in the end it was because God answered it as a yes, becoming like us having eyes of flesh to see as a man sees, having days and years as a man that God was able to sympathetically offer a substitution for us and offer us salvation. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need [Hebrews 4:14-16]. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit [Romans 8:3-4].

6 Questions 1) Why does Bildad believe Job s arguments are wrong? 2) What is Bildad s fundamental argument? What are the similarities and differences when compared to Eliphaz s? 3) What attributes of God do we see listed in chapters 8-10? 4) What is Job s primary response to Bildad in chapter 9? 5) How does Job point us to Christ in his dialog?