Job 31-33 - Covenant with My Eyes

Job Proclaims His Purity and Innocence

Job 31:1 LSB - [1] "I have cut a covenant with my eyes; How then could I gaze at a virgin?

Psa 119:37 LSB - [37] Cause my eyes to turn away from looking at worthlessness, And revive me in Your ways.

Mat 5:28 LSB - [28] but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Job 31:15 LSB - [15] "Did not He who made me in the womb make him, And the same one fashion us in the womb?

Elihu Answers in Anger

Job 32:1-3 LSB - [1] Then these three men ceased answering Job because he was righteous in his own eyes. [2] But the anger of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram, burned; against Job his anger burned because he was proving himself righteous before God. [3] And his anger burned against his three friends because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job.

Job 32:8 LSB - [8] "But it is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives them understanding.

Elihu Asks Job to Hear and Respond

Job 33:19 LSB - [19] "Man is also reproved with pain on his bed, And with unceasing contention in his bones,

i. “The chastisement of sickness and the flagellation of pain whip the sinner back to him who alone can save him. These are the black dogs of the Great Shepherd wherewith he brings back wandering sheep till they come again under his crook, and he leads them into green pastures.”

(Spurgeon)

Job 33:26-28 LSB -
[26] Then he will entreat God, and He will accept him,
And he will see His face with joyful shouts,
And He may restore His righteousness to man.
[27] "He will sing to men and say, 'I have sinned and perverted what is right,
But He has not done what is due to me.
[28] 'He has redeemed my soul from passing into the pit,
And my life shall see the light.'

Job 28-30 - Where Can Wisdom Be Found?

Where Can Wisdom Be Found?

Job 28:20 LSB - 

[20] "Where then does wisdom come from? 

And where is the place of understanding?

Job 28:21 LSB - 

[21] "Thus it is hidden from the eyes of all living 

And concealed from the birds of the sky.

ii. “He seems to say that, though men should explore the deep places of the earth with all the diligence of miners seeking gold and silver, though they should exert all their mental force, as miners use all their muscular vigor, and though they should employ all the machinery within their reach, as men do who pierce through the rocks in search of precious treasure yet it is not within the range of human labor and skill to attain unto wisdom. That can only be found by another and a higher method; it must come to us by revelation from God, for we cannot find it by our own efforts.” (Spurgeon)

Job 28:23 LSB - 

[23] "God understands its way, 

And He knows its place.

Job 28:28 LSB - 

[28] "So He said to man, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; 

And to turn away from evil is understanding.'"

Job Continues His Discourse

Job 29:2-5 LSB - [2] "Oh that I were as in months gone by, As in the days when God kept me, [3] When His lamp shone over my head, [And] by His light I walked through darkness, [4] As I was in the prime of my days, When the [intimate] counsel with God [was] over my tent, [5] When the Almighty was yet with me, [And] my children were around me,

Job 30:23 LSB - [23] "For I know that You will bring me to death And to the house of meeting for all living.

“Under depression of spirit he felt sure that he must very soon die; he feared that God would not relax the blows of his hand until his body became a ruin, and then he would have rest. But he did not die at that time. He was fully recovered, and God gave him twice as much as he had before. A life of usefulness, and happiness, and honor lay before him; and yet he had set up his own tombstone, and reckoned himself a dead man.” (Spurgeon)

Job 30:25 LSB - [25] "Have I not wept for the one whose life is hard? Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

ii. The sensitive soul of Job was another demonstration of his godliness, and appropriate for any servant of God. “I know that a man in the ministry who cannot feel had much better resign his office. We have heard some hold forth the doctrines of grace, as if they were a nauseous medicine, and men were to be forced to drink thereof by hard words and violent abuse. We have always thought that such men did more hurt than good, for while seeking to vindicate the letter, they evidently missed the spirit of the faith once delivered unto the saints. Cold and impassive are some of our divines; they utter truth as though it were no concern of theirs whether men received it or not. To such men heaven and hell, death and eternity, are mere themes for oratory, but not subjects for emotion.” (Spurgeon)

 

 

Job 25-27 - I Hold Fast My Righteousness

Bildad Asks, Can Man Be Right with God?

Job 25:4-6 LSB - [4] "How then can mortal man be right with God? Or how can he be pure who is born of woman? [5] "Behold even the moon has no brightness, And the stars are not pure in His sight; [6] How much less mortal man, [that] maggot, And the son of man, [that] worm!"

Original and actual Sin confessed

Author: Isaac Watts

1 Lord, we are vile, and full of sin,

We're born unholy and unclean;

Spring from the man whose guilty fall

Corrupts his race, and taints us all.

2 Soon as we draw our infant breath

The seeds of sin grow up for death;

Thy law demands a perfect heart,

But we're defiled in every part.

3 Behold, we fall before thy face;

Our only refuge is thy grace:

No outward forms can make us clean;

The leprosy lies deep within.

4 Nor bleeding bird, nor bleeding beast,

Nor hyssop branch, nor earthly priest,

Nor running brook, nor flood, nor sea,

Can wash the dismal stain away.

5 Jesus, thy blood, thy blood alone,

Hath power sufficient to atone;

Thy blood can make us white as snow;

No other tide can cleanse us so.

Who Can Understand God?

Job 26:2-3 LSB - [2] "What a help you are to the one without power! How you have saved the arm without strength! [3] "What counsel you have given to [one] without wisdom! What sound wisdom you have abundantly made known!

Job 26:7 LSB - [7] "He stretches out the north over what is formless And hangs the earth on nothing.

Job 26:14 LSB - [14] "Behold, these are the fringes of His ways; And how [only with] a whisper of a word do we hear of Him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand?"

Psa 139:1-5 LSB - [1] For the choir director. Of David. A Psalm. O Yahweh, You have searched me and known [me]. [2] You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. [3] You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. [4] Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Yahweh, You know it all. [5] You have enclosed me behind and before, And You have put Your hand upon me.

Psa 139:6 LSB - [6] [Such] knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is [too] high, I cannot attain to it.

 

I Hold Fast My Righteousness

Job 27:2-4 LSB - [2] "As God lives, who has removed my justice, And the Almighty, who has embittered my soul, [3] For as long as breath is in me, And the spirit from God is in my nostrils, [4] My lips certainly will not speak unrighteousness, Nor will my tongue utter deceit.

Job 27:6 LSB - [6] "I hold fast my righteousness and will not let it go. My heart does not reproach any of my days.

Job 22-24 - Delight in the Almighty

Eliphaz Says Job Must Repent

Job 22:26 LSB - [26] "For then you will delight in the Almighty And lift up your face to God.

Psa 37:4 LSB - [4] Delight yourself in Yahweh; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

In a sermon titled Delight in the Almighty, Charles Spurgeon explained what this means.

• It means to have joy in God. “When a man hangs his head down he is unhappy: it is the attitude of misery; but oh, when our thoughts of God are changed, and our relationship to God is different, we lift up our faces and sun our countenances in the light of God’s favor.”
• It means to have guilt put away. “Guilt makes a man hang his head. “Conscience doth make cowards of us all”; but oh, my brothers, when the atoning sacrifice has come with all its power to us, when we are washed in the blood of the Lamb, and we are clean every whit, then we lift up our face unto God.”
• It means to be free from fear. “Fear covers her face, and would fain hide herself altogether, even though to accomplish concealment the rocks must fall upon her.”
• It means to have expectation. “Oh, to lift one’s face toward God, looking for deliverance, safety, and rest, and expecting both grace and glory from his right hand!”

Where Is God?

Job 23:3 LSB - [3] "Oh that I knew where I might find Him, That I might come to His seat!

ii. This not only tells us of Job’s sense of the loss of the presence of God, but of his longing to have it back. “Good men are washed towards God even by the rough waves of their grief; and when their sorrows are deepest, their highest desire is not to escape from them, but to get at their God.” (Spurgeon)

iii. “In Job’s uttermost extremity he cried after the Lord. The longing desire of an afflicted child of God is once more to see his Father’s face. His first prayer is not, ‘Oh that I might be healed of the disease which now festers in every part of my body!’ nor even, ‘Oh that I might see my children restored from the jaws of the grave, and my property once more brought from the hand of the spoiler!’ but the first and uppermost cry is, ‘Oh that I knew where I might find HIM — who is my God! that I might come even to his seat!’” (Spurgeon)

Job 23:10 LSB - [10] "But He knows the way I take; [When] He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.

iii. “It looks very hard to believe that a child of God should be tried by the loss of his Father’s presence, and yet should come forth uninjured by the trial. Yet no gold is ever injured in the fire. Stoke the furnace as much as you may, let the blast be as strong as you will, thrust the ingot into the very center of the white heat, let it lie in the very heart of the flame; pile on more fuel, let another blast torment the coals till they become most vehement with heat, yet the gold is losing nothing, it may even be gaining.” (Spurgeon)

v. “I shall ask four questions of every man within reach of my voice. God knoweth the way that you take. I will ask you first: Do you know your own way? Secondly: Is it a comfort to you that God knows your way? Thirdly: Are you tried in the way? And, if so, fourthly: Have you confidence in God as to the result of that trial? Can you say with Job, ‘When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold?’” (Spurgeon)

Who Can Prove Me a Liar?

Job 19-21 - I Know That My Redeemer Lives

My Redeemer Lives

Job 19:2 LSB - [2] "How long will you torment my soul And crush me with words?

Job 19:25-27 LSB - [25] "As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will rise up over the dust [of this world]. [26] "Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall behold God, [27] Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!

I Know That My Redeemer Lives

Author: Samuel Medley (1775)

1 I know that my Redeemer lives;

what comfort this sweet sentence gives!

He lives, He lives, who once was dead;

He lives, my everlasting Head.

2 He lives triumphant from the grave,

He lives eternally to save,

He lives all-glorious in the sky,

He lives exalted there on high.

3 He lives to bless me with His love,

He lives to plead for me above,

He lives my hungry soul to feed,

He lives to help in time of need.

4 He lives to grant me rich supply,

He lives to guide me with His eye,

He lives to comfort me when faint,

He live to hear my soul's complaint.

5 He lives to silence all my fears,

He lives to wipe away my tears,

He lives to calm my troubled heart,

He lives all blessings to impart.

6 He lives, my kind, wise, heav'nly Friend,

He lives and loves me to the end;

He lives, and while He lives, I'll sing;

He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King.

7 He lives and grants me daily breath;

He lives and I shall conquer death;

He lives my mansion to prepare;

He lives to bring me safely there.

8 He lives, all glory to His name!

He lives, my Jesus, still the same.

Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives,

"I know that my Redeemer lives!"

Zophar Says the Joy of the Wicked Is Short

God Does Not Punish the Wicked

Job 16-18 - Troublesome Comforters

Troublesome Comforters

Job 16:2 LSB - [2] "I have heard many such things; Troublesome comforters are you all.

Job 16:19-20 LSB - [19] "Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven, And my advocate is on high. [20] "My friends are my scoffers; My eye weeps to God.

Job Seeks Hope

Job 17:1 LSB - [1] "My spirit is broken; my days are extinguished; The grave is [ready] for me.

Job 17:6 LSB - [6] "But He has made me a byword of the people, And I am one at whom men spit.

Bildad Speaks of the Downfall of the Wicked

Job 13-15 - Though He slay me

I Will Be Declared Righteous

Job 13:4-5 LSB - [4] "But you cover me with lies; You are all worthless physicians. [5] "O that you would be completely silent, And that it would become your wisdom!

Job 13:15 LSB - [15] "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. Nevertheless I will argue my ways before Him.

iii. “It is well worthy of observation that in these words Job answered both the accusations of Satan and the charges of his friends. Though I do not know that Job was aware that the devil had said, ‘Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast thou not set a hedge about him and all that he hath?’ Yet he answered that base suggestion in the ablest possible manner, for he did in effect say, ‘Though God should pull down my hedge, and lay me bare as the wilderness itself, yet will I cling to him in firmest faith.’” (Spurgeon)

iv. “There are three things in the text: a terrible supposition — “though he slay me”; a noble resolution, “yet will I trust in him”; and, thirdly, a secret appropriateness. This last will require a little looking into, but I hope to make it clear that there is a great appropriateness in our trusting while God is slaying us — the two things go well together, though it may not so appear.” (Spurgeon)

v. Charles Spurgeon listed several reasons why he thought that “slaying times” were good times.

• Such times show us that we are really His sons and daughters because He only chastens His children.
• Such times — slaying times — are when real faith is created.
• Such times are when God tests and affirms our faith.
• Such times are when we can grow in faith.
• Such times allow the child of God to prove that he is not a mercenary professor of faith.

vi. “Once more, the grim supposition of the text, if ever it was realized by anybody it was realized by our Lord Jesus. Our great covenant Head knows to the full what his members suffer. God did slay him, and glory be to his blessed name, he trusted God while he was being slain.” (Spurgeon)

Job 13:20-23 LSB - [20] "Only two things do not do to me, Then I will not hide from Your face: [21] Move Your hand far from me, And let not the dread of You terrify me. [22] "Then call, and I will answer; Or let me speak, then respond to me. [23] "How many are my iniquities and sins? Make known to me my transgression and my sin.

If a Man Dies, Will He Live Again?

Job 14:1-2 LSB - [1] "Man, who is born of woman, Is short-lived and full of turmoil. [2] "Like a flower he comes forth and withers. He also flees like a shadow and does not stand.

Job 14:13-14 LSB - [13] "Oh that You would conceal me in Sheol, That You would hide me until Your anger returns [to You], That You would set a limit for me and remember me! [14] "If a man dies, will he live [again]? All the days of my labor I will wait Until my change comes.

Eliphaz Says Job’s Lips Answer Against Him

Job 15:4 LSB - [4] "Indeed, you annul [reverent] fear And cut off musing before God.

Job 15:4 ESV - [4] But you are doing away with the fear of God and hindering meditation before God.

Job 15:4 NKJV - [4] Yes, you cast off fear, And restrain prayer before God.

i. Nevertheless, certainly some people do restrain prayer before God. Spurgeon considered ways that some do this.

• Some restrain prayer before God because they do not pray often or regularly.
• Some restrain prayer before God because they do not prepare their hearts properly to pray. They do not consider who they are praying to, the way their prayer should be made, that they are sinners, what they should ask of God, and thankful for what He has done in the past.
• Some restrain prayer before God because they pray in such a formal, strict manner that they never really pour out their heart before God.
• Some restrain prayer before God because they pray with little faith and much unbelief.

Job 15:11 LSB - [11] "Are the consolations of God too small for you, Even the word [spoken] gently with you?

i. “However wrong Eliphaz may have been in reference to Job and in reference to him his remarks were grossly unjust-yet many of them are correct in themselves, and may usefully be applied to our own hearts. Inasmuch as Eliphaz, in this verse, teaches no doctrine, but only asks two searching questions, he cannot mislead us; but he may do us good service.” (Spurgeon)

ii. Spurgeon suggested what some of the consolations of God are that are considered by some to be too small and neglected or rejected:

• The consolations of God are applied by the Holy Spirit, who is the Comforter.
• Jesus is the substance of these consolations, for He is called “The Consolation of Israel”
• (Luke 2:25)
• The consolations of God deal with our problem of sin; its guilt and stain and power.
• The consolations of God assure us of a new heart and nature.
• The consolations of God reveal a reason for sorrow that remains.
• The consolations of God show us One who suffers with us; Jesus Christ.
• The consolations of God compensate us for all trials and sufferings.
• The consolations of God tell us of our heavenly destination and hope.

Job 15:14 LSB - [14] "What is man, that he should be pure, Or he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

Job 10-12 - Job Cries Out to God

Job Cries Out to God

Job 10:2 LSB - [2] "I will say to God, 'Do not account me as wicked; Let me know why You contend with me.

iv. The tried saint may ask as Job did, “Show me why You contend with me.” Spurgeon suggested several answers:

It may be that God is contending with you to show you His power to uphold you.

It may be that God is contending with you to develop your graces.

It may be that God is contending with you because you have some secret sin that is doing you great damage.

It may be that God is contending with you because He wants you to enter the fellowship of His sufferings.

It may be that God is contending with you to humble you.

v. The seeking sinner might also ask as Job did, “Show me why You contend with me.” Spurgeon suggested several answers to the seeking sinner:

It may be that God is contending with you because you are not yet thoroughly awakened to your lost condition.

It may be that God is contending with you in order to test your earnestness.

It may be that God is contending with you because you are harboring one sin that you will not turn over to Him.

It may be that God is contending with you because you do not yet thoroughly understand the plan of salvation.

vi. Though it was not the case with Job, it is true that God often contends with both saints and sinners to deal with their sin. “Trials often discover sins — sins we should never have found out if it had not been for them. We know that the houses in Russia are very greatly infested with rats and mice. Perhaps a stranger would scarcely notice them at first, but the time when you discover them is when the house is on fire; then they pour out in multitudes. And so doth God sometimes burn up our comforts to make our hidden sins run out; and then he enables us to knock them on the head and get rid of them.” (Spurgeon)

Job 10:9-12 LSB - [9] 'Remember now, that You have made me as clay; And would You turn me into dust again? [10] 'Did You not pour me out like milk And curdle me like cheese, [11] Clothe me with skin and flesh, And knit me together with bones and sinews? [12] 'You have made alongside me life and lovingkindness; And Your care has kept my spirit.

Zophar Asks, Can You Find the Depths of God?

Job 11:16 LSB - [16] "For you would forget [your] trouble, As waters that pass by, so you would remember [it].

ii. “We seem to lie all broken in pieces, with our thoughts like a case of knives cutting into our spirit; and we say to ourselves, ‘We never shall forget this terrible experience.’ And yet, by-and-by, God turns towards us the palm of his hand, and we see that it is full of mercy, we are restored to health, or uplifted from depression of spirit, and we wonder that we ever made so much of our former suffering or depression.” (Spurgeon)

iii. “We remember it no more, except as a thing that has passed and gone, to be recollected with gratitude that we have been delivered from it, but not to be remembered so as to leave any scar upon our spirit, or to cause us any painful reflection whatsoever. ‘Thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away.’” (Spurgeon)

 

Job Answers

Job 12:4 LSB - [4] "I am a laughingstock to my friends, The one who called on God and He answered him; The righteous [and] blameless [man] is a laughingstock.

Job 12:7-10 LSB - [7] "But now ask the beasts, and let them instruct you; And the birds of the sky, and let them tell you. [8] "Or muse to the earth, and let it instruct you; And let the fish of the sea recount [it] to you. [9] "Who among all these does not know That the hand of Yahweh has done this, [10] In whose hand is the life of every living thing, And the breath of all the flesh of man?

Job Speaks of God’s Strength

Job 12:13 LSB - [13] "With Him are wisdom and might; To Him belong counsel and discernment.

Job 12:24-25 LSB - [24] "He removes the heart [of wisdom] from the heads of the earth's people And makes them wander in a pathless waste. [25] "They grope in darkness with no light, And He makes them wander about like a drunken man.