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a book by book welcome to this series of

studies that we're doing in the book of

Job right now

I wonder indeed whether you've got one

of those study guides that we like to

supply the book of Job it's worth having

one with you through having a group

Bible study or if you're on your own

looking at the television on your own

that again could be quite useful in any

case here we are rich abused poor black

'm and then our special guest Glen

Scrivener who works with the hour of

revival ministries here in Sussex by the

sea off we go

study number six and we're going to do

the book of Job chapters now let's just

work it out I think we'll do a chapters

20 to 24 for me to do that so here we

are with our reading first of all we're

going to read job twenty first seven

verses then Zuffa the name of that

replied my troubled thoughts prompt me

to answer because I am greatly disturbed

he's answering job I hear a rebuke that

dishonours me and my understanding

inspires me to reply surely you know how

it has been from of old ever since man

was placed on the earth that the mirth

of the wicked is brief the joy of the

godless lasts but a moment though his

pride reaches to the heavens and his

head touches the clouds he will perish

for ever this is so far the third of the

three comforters and is not impressed it

seems by Jim's wonder confession of

faith in Jesus Christ and the

resurrection hope why not

I mean chapter 20 maybe give us some of

the answers no I think so because I

think when we chose given that wonderful

thing about looking to the future and

the day of the Lord's coming and all

that and sofas like no no no no I don't

like this at all I want the wicked

sorted out right now and so he gives all

this long argument throughout the

chapter where he's really really saying

that's not an icon I can't wait I'm not

going to weigh I'm not going to be

patience

because remember james511 and we might

look at that again

but they won't be patient justice he

feels must be he

and now seen here and now so in verse 15

he says look we all know with the with

the the wicked ones evil is sweet in his

mouth verse 12 but verse 15 he spits it

all out he can't like the must right now

where we can all see it and see the

consequences must happen right now verse

17 the wicked will not enjoy the streams

the rivers flowing with honey and cream

so all the way through he's sort of

wanting to say look forget the future in

a way I'm sure it'll all be good and all

the rest of it but right here and now we

want to see the wicked getting what they

deserve right now and that's the way it

has to be so job forget looking over to

that day of Justice today's the day of

justice I think it's John Chrysostom 16

centuries ago who once said that you had

to be careful not to dig the pit for the

wicked too soon he said the pit is being

dug but therefore the preacher digs it

too soon you made a bad bad mistake

right brilliant so here is Jobe now he's

got to reply across to zofran he wants

to so is the fate of the wicked it's

really so clear in this life he's asking

chapter 21 well it's not at all and that

should be one of the most obvious things

if you look out into the world the

wicked prosper course but they prosper

all the time crime does pay all the time

and I think joke because he doesn't know

he's a redeemer he does know the Lord

Jesus he is able to look at the world

and just see it for what it is

so joke 21 verse 7 to 8 he says actually

why do the wicked live on because they

do the wicked live on all the time

growing old and increasing in power they

see their children established around

them their offspring before their eyes

you know Jobe sort of says look at the

the Nazi concentration camp commandant

who escapes to South South America and

ends up you know bouncing his baby

granddaughter on his knees yeah of

course the wicked prosper they prosper

all the time and and Jobe is actually

able to make sense of this world a lot

more than the miserable comforters the

miserable comforters just

they must see in this life that the

wicked get it in a neck and that the

righteous are blessed but Joe because he

knows about the Lord's

because he knows that the greatest

suffering happens to the greatest man so

that we the worst can have the greatest

blessing he knows that things are so

much more mixed in this life and so in

chapter 21 he just points out that the

blindingly obvious really the wicked

sometimes prosper and that really

undercuts the Sofia's argument and the

argument to the other comforters yes yes

oh that's Joe and actually I like what

he says in chapter 21 verse 34 at the

end of it

nothing is left of your answers but

falsehood hmm so but then Elif s is not

convinced by this why is he so sure that

Joe must be in the wrong in chapter 22

well in turn 222 I suppose the attack

his friends really have been saying Jobe

it's your it's all the things you've

done wrong they've brought this about

and then I think Jobe was given a fairly

thorough answer to say well that doesn't

quite work does it because people do

things wrong and it doesn't they don't

necessarily get instantly destroyed and

so elephants I think credit to him in a

sense he's like I don't think I can just

repeat the same argument again so he

says okay it's not your sins of

commission

it's your sins of omission it's what you

failed to do that's got you in this mess

so he goes your wickedness is great but

what the problem is you haven't looked

after people properly so um you you took

things from people you didn't like you

verse 7 you gave no water to the weary

you withheld food from the hungry though

you were powerful you kind of you sent

widows away when they came for help and

all these things now later job's gonna

explain that isn't how he lived at all

but this is LFS is a ten to say no I

think I can see the problem here it's

not so much their loads of wicked things

you you've just not helped people enough

you've kind of just ignored the cries

and he said and then again he's like

don't worry though I've got the answer

if you will only just sort that out and

get some instruction from the Lord and

start doing all these social things you

should have done then it's going to be

lovely then your delight in the Lord and

He will lift up your face and verse 26

and all that then he will deliver you a

lift

the downcast the CLE you will be

delivered through the cleanness of your

hands verse 30 so in the end it's the

same old ghastly philosophy of Satan

over again just from a slightly

different angle it's always the accuser

actually I think it's a matthew henry

who describes job's response as a

struggle as he puts it a struggle

between the flesh and the spirit fear

and faith so where do we see that in

chapter 23 yeah chapter 23 is such a

mixed bag and I think this is so true to

life as we're going through suffering

and is we're trying to counsel people

going through suffering we'll we'll see

great faith and doubt mixed together

great confidence and despair so here in

in chapter 23 we we see verses three and

four

marvelous verses wobblers verses and

Jobe has this confidence that kind of

God is for him if only I knew where to

find him if and they could go to his

dwelling I would state my case before

him him fill my mouth with arguments

he's he's quite confident that he and

the Lord are friends and yet you go down

to verse 14 and he seems to have such

deep suspicion of God actually he

carries out his decree against me and

many such plans he still has in store

that is why I am terrified before him

when I think of all this I fear him so

he's such a mixed bag and and and you

see similarly in Chapter 7 he felt like

the Lord was so close to him

scrutinizing him and now in chapter 23

verse 8 the Lord so far away if I go to

the east he's not there if I go to the

West I don't find him when he's at work

in the north I don't see him when he

turns to the south I catch no glimpse

from him so what is it is the Lord near

or is he far away is he friends with the

Lord is he suspicious of the Lord what

is it and the answer is yes yeah he's

just he's a mixed bag but in amongst at

all in verse 10 I love this phrase

second half of verse 10 but when he has

tested me I shall come forth as gold it

could be a theme verse for the whole

book couldn't it through the furnace of

affliction and out the other side into

greater glory

that's his deep down fundamental hope

but in the midst of it he's a mixed bag

of course and we have to remember as we

said at the very start of this series of

studies that although that

heavenly discussion went on and they all

knew what was happening we also all know

what's happening but Joker's not in he's

not he's in the dark about what's

happening and that's part of the

conflict of course that he's he's in

with but having expressed then his

turmoil of faith of and fear

how does Jobe return to these arguments

of his friends in chapter 24 okay so

what he had done in chapter 21 was

explain the wicked sometimes do very

well and they don't always end badly in

24 he's saying righteous and innocent

people don't always do well so he's

coming at it from that angle now and so

he goes through these examples of how

vulnerable people and the orphans and

the net they orphaned the widows and the

orphans are people that the Lord like is

especially interested in and he goes

orphans and widows the very people the

Lord really looks after have a rough

time and that people take advantage of

in the needy and the poor and the

innocent lacking clothes verse 7 they

spend the night naked they have nothing

to cover themselves the fatherless child

verse 9 and so on so he's looking at it

from that side and then verse 12 god

charges no one with wrongdoing so he's

saying look you guys are always saying

it's black and white there are

simplistic answers and it's all easy

he says I've shown you that the wicked

don't always end badly but I'm now

showing you that the innocent and the

poor and the needy and people who are

calling out to the Lord for help don't

always get wonderful big health and

wealth packages in fact they often die

and the hungry on that taken advantage

of and their cry and this is a jury all

the way through the scriptures this is a

cry that we hear from the prophets and

the apostles and in the highest heaven

even in heaven this cry goes up how long

O Lord and job's drawing attention to

that oh yes you give that in Revelation

six worthy whether the martyrs are under

the author crying out how long how long

and but there's going to be an answer

there is going to be an answer so is

there some way do you think in which

Jobe resolves this tension in chapter 24

will there never be times for judgment

verses 2

yes well guys were verse1 yeah I think

what job does is he then he wants to

track the course of the Wicked's

not just in this life which is all that

the the comforters are interested he

wants to track it down through to the

grave to shale to judgments so so from

verse 13 he starts tracking the course

of the wicked and and he begins in verse

13 and 14 it says yea there are

murderers who are getting away with it

there are adulterers verse 15 who are

getting away with it but verse 19 as

heat and drought snatch away the melted

snow

so the grave or Sheol snatches away

those who have sinned or verse 22 but

God drags away by the drags away the

mighty by his power though they have

become established they have no

assurance of life he's thinking about

the grave and beyond and then from verse

24 he starts using harvest language he

says for a little while there exalted

and then they are gone they are brought

low and gathered up harvest language

like all the others they are cut off

like ears of corn and of course

throughout the Bible harvest language is

very much judgment evolution 14 so there

yes yes well Matthew 13 or James 5 which

we keep returning to James 5 is

fascinating to think about that that

actually James looks back at Jobin and

he says yes there's a judgment to come

and in the light of that judgment that's

how we are to make a true assessment the

Lord makes a true assessment not

according to the prosperity of the

suffering of this world but the Lord

makes a true judgment on that last day

and so that's what we look to for that

true judgment and in the meantime what

should what should Christians do what

you believers do well we we imitate that

that the perseverance of job James

chapter 5 verse verse 11 James chapter 5

verse 11 you have heard of job's

perseverance and you've seen what the

Lord finally brought about the Lord is

full of compassion and mercy so we don't

just judge things according to this life

we see towards a judgment in which the

wicked really will in the ends get their

comeuppance but in which the Friends of

the Lord receive that that compassion

and that mercy from the Lord that's

where we look to we're just about at the

end really job is so like I think the

Prophet who followed later

Habakkuk who exercised doubts and felt

doubts but it was doubt within

commitment that's the wonderful thing

and so a person can have doubts we may

exercise darts and feel them but it can

be doubt within commitment to the Lord

although we can't see everything we know

enough as German you just enough to hold

on even in the darkness that verse you

mentioned earlier on glim that memory

verses he could be job 23 verse 10 but

he knows the way that I take when he has

tested me I shall come forth as gold he

held on to that we can hold on to that

as well I think of a fine Christian

leader in this country here in the UK

well known across the country when he

was having a really difficult time this

first spoke to him and he said this

about it my heart lept I almost fell out

of bed with a joy of reading it and I

knew that God understood the pressures

upon me and they were part of his

refining process some early they are

sharing with us in the study we don't

know who you are where are you in bed

was the time going difficult or do you

know somebody was having a difficult

time well make that verse a memory verse

to hold on to job 23:10 but he knows the

way that I take when he has tested me I

shall come forth as gold job 23:10 thank

you for joining us

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