Job Explained

​Sometimes you think, well, what's the purpose of a suffering? What's the purpose of a trial? Just realize saints, you're getting revelation to see Jesus. That final repentance of Job was the realization that I didn't know as much as I thought I did, and I'm so sorry, Lord, that I questioned you. I just love that transition. He heard about God. Now he's seen him, something experiential has taken place, something intimate. That's what I love about this book.

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Hello and welcome to the You Can Learn the Bible podcast, where we summarize complete Bible books in single episodes. My name is Bode Quirk from YouCanLearntheBible.Com here with Joey Rozek, Lead Pastor of Living Springs Fellowship in New Jersey. What's up, Joey? It's podcast day. How are you feeling today? I'm so excited. We're entering a new section of the Bible, a new genre. Oh man, it's good. How are you doing, my friend?

Yes. Yes. I'm doing very well and blessed to be doing another broadcast with you, Bodie.

And especially, as we go into a new genre of the wisdom literature, we start with a book that, really hits home for all of us who understand the pains of this world, the sufferings that we go through, we're in the book of Job, not job, but the book of Job, and we really get to see God's heart for his people during times of suffering, and, where limited, finite understanding meets God's infinite wisdom and the way in which God will unravel and reveal his will through the hard times of life.

Yeah.

So this is going to be good. Bodie,

Yeah. I don't, I don't know if there is a book that is more applicable to every single human person than this book, because everybody suffers, everybody feels the pain.

And so our hope as we go through, this book, the book of Job, people know certain things about it, but I think, Joey, that there's some things that trip people up. So what we want to do is we want to help you make the most of reading this book on your own.

The way we do that is with our framework, seven part framework. We're going to talk about the essentials of the book of Job today, where it fits on the storyline, what are the major themes and ideas. The structure of Job, which actually is going to be really, really important, we'll talk about that in a second.

But I think, Joey, these are really going to come to life in a new way. What does it teach us about God? What, and what does it offer our Christian life? The book itself is a commentary on these two very things. And we're getting, we can now get to kind of look and see. see how we can profit from these discussions that we find in this book and some of our personal favorite things as well.

This is the framework we apply to each and every book of the Bible so that you can be equipped and inspired.

And so along with that, we like to summarize the book, not just in the audio, but on a PDF. Which we were going to give you a link for at the end of the episode, but we also know that sometimes you'd like to watch and see some of the visuals that we use.

Those are available on YouTube and the audio podcast is available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. So we have a lot to cover, Joey. Job is a big book and there's a lot going on that I think confuses people.

So why don't we just get right into it, right? We always like to imagine we're sitting down, we got limited time. We're going to give you the best stuff. No fluff. Let's get right to it. Where do we need to start with the book of Job?

Well, probably it would be good to start by letting you know, this is one of the oldest books in the entire Bible.

Some have even put it before Genesis, but we don't exactly know when this book was written, but what we do know is this is around the patriarchal period by some of the references and there's even actually a verse in the book of Genesis.

In chapter 46, where Job's name is mentioned, we're just not sure if it's the same Job, but it tells us that he could be one of the sons of Issachar of the tribe of Issachar there. So one of the things that we do know as well is that this is a book from the five books called the wisdom literature, also called the books of poetry, in the Bible.

There is some beautiful expressions in here about our contemplations in life, when we're trying to figure things out, in fact, 16 times in this book alone, the question why comes up. So, you know, a lot of times we go, why, why me?

Why this? Why now? You know, all these kinds of questions, but, whoever wrote this book. It was inspired by God, like all books of the Bible. And, when we think about where the setting is, we do know that it's in the east in the land of Uz, also known as the land of Edom, according to other passages of scripture.

The perspective that we, get from this book, and it really is a book of perspectives. Most of it is man's perspective circulating around, almost like a whirlwind, which is perhaps why God shows up, to Job in a whirlwind

a whirlwind. Yep.

literally God speaks to him with power and authority to show that he is sovereign over all, he's the creator of the heavens and the earth, and he has mysteries known that only he knows. That's why the Bible tells us the secret things belong to God and the things that are revealed, that belongs to us and to our children that we may walk in them. So it's definitely a book. The purpose of this book is to teach us perspective when we're going through times of suffering.

And the audience, of course, was the whole patriarchal world, the ancient world. Of course, everybody who's a people of faith, who has belief in, Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will benefit from the wisdom in this book, Bodie. So a lot of great things we're going to look at in the book of

Yes. Yeah. And what's cool now, Joey, too, is because when we now enter into the genre of wisdom literature that you just told us about, there's going to be some things that I think will really help people not get tripped up on certain things. One of the things that wisdom literature, is meant to be read as, is it's meant to be read in large blocks, in summaries, a lot like speeches, right?

So a lot of times people will look at one little detail in the speech and they'll get confused. But really the author intends that the entirety of that speech and the theme, that's what we're really trying to get from. from it. And so things like that, are really going to be important. Another thing is too, is that we think that because it's in the Bible, everything is actually from God or celebrated or endorsed by God.

Where in fact, just cause it's in the Bible, that's not necessarily true. It's there for our growth, but we need to understand properly. How it functions in the book that God has inspired. So that's what we're wanting to help you do with the book of Job today. Okay. So great. That's essentials. That's our number one in our framework.

Let's talk about the storyline. You already told us that we've already gone through the whole history, Joe. He went through all the historical books and now we're jumping all the way back to the beginning at time during the patriarchal period.

So let's talk about number two storyline. The purpose of Job is really is doesn't have much to do with where it falls on the timeline. It's just not where the focus of the book falls. You did mention that Job could possibly be a son of Issachar from Genesis 46, 13. What's the focus of the book then? Well, we do see a lot of focus on God, of man, but also of the angelic realm. This is going to be one of the first books that's going to really help us introduce some of these themes.

It's not Super overt throughout the whole book, but it's definitely mentioned. And we're going to talk about its role in this book, but we want to understand the players, the people in this book. So here's who we're going to encounter. We're going to first encounter, of course, God, right? Every book is a book about God.

Job is of course, the main character here, the focus. But Job's friends, the other people in Job's sphere, as well as even Satan shows up in this book. So though it's not a historical book focused on like the ones we've previously looked at, it does take place during the patriarchal period, which is going to be important.

Just an important thing. But we don't need to spend much more on the storyline, Joy, unless you have anything to add. We can get into the really, I think the stuff that is going to be helpful, the themes and ideas are number three. But anything you want to add on storyline?

Yeah. Let's dive right into the themes and ideas. Our third question. Part of our framework.

great. Perfect. Okay. So what's happening in the book of Job, Joey, walk us through some of these major themes and ideas. Yes.

So the book of Job is an exemplary book for us to learn from,

the wisdom we can gain from this book is so helpful because again, the overarching theme is this eternal perspective on suffering. It's interesting because the book is quoted again in the book of Ezekiel chapter 14 in verse 20 when it talks about, Noah and Job and Daniel, three key figures that we learn great, valuable spiritual lessons from.

So his name shows up again later on in that prophetic book. It's also referenced in the New Testament in the book of James. When we talk about the perseverance of Job. So a lot of us, when we go through hardship, we have to go through hardship, not just for a day or an hour, but sometimes for seasons of our life.

So this is a really important theme. We're going to kind of learn from perspective on suffering and perseverance and suffering. But the other thing is, There's a spiritual dimension to all of our suffering, right? Any tragedy or trouble we go through, there's a backdrop of God's plan unfolding and there's spiritual forces at work.

We call it spiritual warfare. When we talk about the battle between God's angels and the fallen angels, the demonic forces, the spiritual hosts of wickedness and so forth. So there's a definite spiritual component in this book that we get introduced to. The other thing that's an interesting theme is that Job has to accept the losses that have come in his life.

This is a man who loses just about everything. Bodie. He basically keeps his wife, but outside of that, Job loses his health, his children. He goes through an incredible amount of loss. So anybody who's ever lost things are going to gain some great value of insight in this book.

But then of course we try to figure things out, and one of the key themes of this book is man's limited perspective. When it comes to grief. So a lot of us don't understand why things are happening and we need to turn our why's to who, who's in control when these things are happening, but that's going to be a huge one. We're going to see a lot of human attacks and accusations

man.

right job. It's friends. Start off quite comforting and then they end up quite condemning, and so this is a book about how sometimes the people around you aren't always so helpful when they try to make sense of things. We're going to see also Job's personal complaints and lamentations.

I think we get an inside look, an autobiographical sketch of what person going through suffering. We do get beautiful expressions of this in the book of Psalms by David and others, but Job gives us an incredibly in personal insight into the human soul when suffering is happening, and then we have God's refinement.

Of course, God's always working. He's taking us through the trials, through the storms of life to produce something good in us and to make something eternally lasting in our spiritual lives. And so that's huge. And then finally, repentance comes up in this book, restoration and renewal. That's the themes we're going to end up on when the book is all over. So those are our key themes.

For sure. And I think Joey, even with these themes, there's just going to be lots of questions that I think are going to naturally come up through our discussion that we are just, we can't answer. Why does suffering happen is the, is a question that mankind has wrestled with for centuries that we still don't have a complete answer.

Because what we want is to not suffer, but we know that we do. So this book is for people who are suffering, to give us a proper understanding. It looks at the ground level human perspective and its limitations, and it looks at God's role in it as well. So this book, friends, is a gift to us, and we want to receive it, and we want to help you understand it.

That's awesome. Thank you, Joey.

So now we need to talk about the structure. The structure is actually really important to know about if you read this, because if you just start reading from beginning to end and you don't know the major sections of this book, It's It's going to feel strange, and I will tell you why in a second.

But as we go through the structure, as we always do, we're going to ask a lot. What was, what is this, what can we learn about God? What is God's role in suffering? How does, how does this apply to our life? Is God going to do the same thing to me that he did to Job? We're going to address questions like that as we go through, and we talk about the structure.

So let's talk about the sections of the book first, okay?

So we've got Five sections that we're going to go through. So we've tried to make it as memorable as possible because not everybody sees the visuals. What we want to make sure is that you could listen to this episode and get a sense and remember the structure of the book.

So what we have is kind of a key word for each one. So I'm going to, let me walk you through this briefly. Chapters one and two is the first section. That's. Prologue. That's the tragedy of Job's sufferings. That's where all everything kind of on just breaks and Job's life. So that's the prologue chapters one and two.

Then, Joey, I think we may have the biggest section, single section of our podcast history together in section two, three through 31. I didn't, I said that right. Three through 31 is a single section of dialogue. So first is prologue, second is dialogues, the flawed counsel of Job's friends. And we're going to break that down a little bit when we get to that.

But then with the third section is a monologue, which is the contribution of Elihu, another one of Job's friends that does not participate in the dialogues of section two. But really, Joey. Section four is the divine response, chapters 38 through 41. That's the crescendo of the book, but we don't start there, we got to get there. We got to work our way up there.

That is God's final word on the matter. And that's where we really want to make sure that's the answer to how does it apply? We'll get there. And then the section five is an epilogue, which is basically Job's repentance restoration from God. So we got prologue, dialogue, monologue, divine response, and epilogue. Are you ready? Because I'm ready. Let's get into

go. Let's dive in. This is a great book.

Joey, what happens to our friend Job in chapters one and two?

Well, in chapter one, in the very opening verses, Job is introduced to us as a blameless and upright man, one who feared God and shunned evil. This is a beautiful description to describe a man who is set apart. In his generation. Now, of course, we know that the Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

So don't read these words and assume that job was without any character flaws or that he had no room for growth in his life. We're actually going to learn as the story unfolds of job, that there was areas of pride in his own heart areas where he had some self reliance and self sufficiency and God's going to kind of weed that out of him in a beautiful way, but he clearly was a godly man.

And one of the things that we recognize is that he would actually wake up in the morning and he would actually pray for his sons and his daughters in case they had sinned. And I love that

Right. Which is amazing in case they had sinned. Right.

In case they had sent. I mean, he just was covering his family in prayer. And of course, God had blessed Job, and so then the story takes this turn, Bodie, we go from this earthly picture up into the heavenlies, and there's this incredible dialogue that takes place between God and Satan. Now we all know that Satan was once an angel named it Lucifer, who basically had fallen. Jesus comments on it in the gospel of Luke, how he saw satan fall like lightning from heaven.

So we know there was a fall of this angel and we know in the book of Revelation that he's an accuser of the brethren. So he's kind of like trying to make his appearances at the throne, making accusations against God's people. And interestingly, God is the one who brings up Job, to Satan.

Because Satan's kind of basically trying to point out look at all the people who aren't serving God, look at all the people who are turning their back on you and You could almost say some fatherly knowledge, maybe even some idea of I know my servant Job and he brings him up to Satan to say you may go ahead and consider Job and, Satan says, well, he only honors you because of all the things you've done for him.

Basically that you've put a hedge about him. You've protected him. You've provided for him. So God permits keyword. He permits Satan. to basically have attack against Job and his family with the clear command, you shall not touch him. Job was not allowed to be wiped out or killed by Satan, but Satan would be able to afflict Job.

And that interesting dialogue shows us that Satan cannot really do things against God's people without a certain level of permission and sovereign control that God remains through the whole time when God's people are suffering. That's an important piece of information. But basically what happens is, is that, through a series of explanations, Satan is able to work through human factors like storms and peoples, and he attacks the home of his children are killed.

And so chapter one, Ends with Job responding to his losses, where he says that he shaved his head, he fell to the ground, and he worshipped. Now, this is amazing. He worshipped. And here's the, here's the verse that we read, Job 1, 21 to 22, says,

Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord and all of this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. That's amazing. That's an amazing response that shows you a man whose faith was genuine, that even after so much loss and affliction, he could still start with worship. He could still remember that God is the giver of everything in his life.

And so since God gave him everything, God also has the right to take something from him. If he so desires, and, we see a beautiful picture of chapter one ending on this note. And then, uh, chapter two kind of shows that his wife doesn't have the same response. She's like curse God and die. This is not good

Right.

And and she's left behind and Job tells us shall we indeed accept good from God and shall we not accept adversity? Job is learning how to trust God no matter what season of life he's in So that's our prologue in the beginning of

Yeah. Well, and it's what we see in wisdom literature, friends. This is not just true to the Book of Job, but it's true to all the wisdom books is you see a contrast between two types of people, the righteous and the wicked, the God fearing and the God forgetting or the God denying. Okay. Job is a model of a righteous man, not a sinless man, as Joey said, but someone who, here's the key idea, he fears the Lord.

Job says, why would I not accept both good and evil from God? God is good. I fear him. Why is it so confusing? Yes, it's hard. He's going to get to that. But Job did not sin. Notice the sin would be to basically to dethrone the glory of God, even though, despite the suffering, Job retained his God exalting worldview.

And that, I think, was, is the key part why Job was selected in the first place. We think that righteousness, and so do Job's friends, we're going to see in a second. Is a protection against suffering. It is not. And we also think that sin is always the reason why we're suffering. That's not true either.

Job teaches us that the world is more complicated than what we see on the surface, and there's always more going on than we realize, but we should not forget that the righteous will be remembered in the eyes of God, though they will suffer, right? So that's what I think we see. We see in this first section is Job's righteousness, and we see his whole world come crashing down.

But then Joey, chapter two, and his friends arrive. That leads us into our second section, our big section. Section three through 31, which we call the flawed counsel of Job's friends. But here's what we want to say. People are so quick to pick on Job's friends. First, they show up and they sit with him for seven days.

I'm gonna let you jump in in a second. You can tell us what happened, but they, they don't open their mouth at all. But then Joey, we have about 30 chapters of dialogue and speeches. And this is the section that I feel like people start walking into and they get lost. So would you help us understand how we should approach section two, chapters three through 31,

Yeah. Well, this transition of the friends coming in, kind of like, enter friends to the stage, you really see

have entered the chat, right?

Yeah, their first approach was to observe the grief that job was going through and they were very sensitive to that grief. You know, I actually really appreciate the first thing we learned from these friends is they were, they were wonderful comforters when they didn't feel the need to speak.

But they were there. I've heard it said once that they committed what was called the three B's, which is good in grief. Be there, be quiet, be sensitive. Those three B's. They did all three of those and it was a beautiful display of love and compassion for their friend. But then they started to try to figure out why he's suffering.

And what we go into in this huge section, as you mentioned, Bodie, are dialogues where they're trying to give their counsel. They're trying to offer their human wisdom to explain that perhaps your suffering is due to your sin, Job. Maybe God's angry with you. Maybe you have not repented of something.

And so they introduce all of these ideas and, we're going to call them cycles. Where they're sharing their input but the first thing we should probably point out is that it begins in chapter three with a lament by Job. He kind of just expresses to his friends how he was, wishing he was never born.

I mean, he, he was in so much pain and this is what grief can do, right? Bodie, we can feel like it'll never end. Like we're in such deep despair. We're drowning in an ocean of sorrow and we don't see the light above us. And it almost takes a hand to reach down and pick us up from such despair. So Job is utterly full of anguish. He is sorrowful like no other. And that's what sets his friends off to try to help him, but they don't do a good job because they come with human wisdom and opinion.

The three friends of Job's Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, these three men are really going back and forth with Job, almost like a little sword fighting is going on in the idea of who's making the point, the strongest. Who is, who's able to penetrate to the deepest level of the human soul?

And, just to give you a little picture of that, I just thought, in chapter 15, for example, Eliphaz accuses Job with these words, should a wise man answer with empty knowledge and fill himself with the East wind? Should he reason with unprofitable talk or by speeches? With which he can do no good.

Yes, you cast off fear and you restrain prayer before God for your iniquity teaches your mouth and you choose the tongue of the crafty Your own mouth condemns you and not I, yes, your own lips testify against you. So could you see like these words are kind of weaponized to actually take the, the fact that Job is hurting, he's not in a good place.

And, and there's a capitalizing here on the weakness of job. And this is not good counseling. This is not good comforting because, the timing is not right. If there was even an issue with Job, and not only that, the tone of these accusations is not to bring Job further to God, but almost to keep him away.

There's a condemning spirit happening. And this is the spiritual warfare behind all of this. Satan is using human vessels to really seek to attack. And discourage Job, and later on, at the end of this book, you're going to see God rebuke these men. So we really do have God's divine counsel on this,

So let me turn it over to you, Bodie, um, to kind of pick it

Sure. So yeah, and you have a massive lament. Job literally says in Job 3, 1 4, after this, Job opened his mouth and he cursed the day of his birth. And he said, basically like, why am I, you know, this is deep, real, authentic anguish, friends, the Bible does not shy away from the real brokenness of our world, but it, it also offers another perspective into it.

That's what we see. So here's what you want to keep in mind within this big section of all these dialogues. You have Job kind of starting it at the beginning in chapter three, and Job concluding it in 26 through 31. You have a lament in chapter three. And then you have Job's final response in chapter 31.

Again, we're still in this large section two, but in the middle, Joey, are three cycles of dialogues between Job and his friends. And this is, as you said, where they try and speak into Job's situation. So people read this and they get confused because there's lots of bad counsel. There's lots of good counsel.

There's lots of partial counsel. So they're like, how is this the word of God when they're wrong? Well, what this is trying to show us is a number of things happening at the same time. Job's friends trying to be there. As Joey already said, that, that was great, Joey, the three Bs. But Job gets to respond.

This is human dialogue, friends. This is limited wisdom that we get to sit on the sides and watch. But what we don't want to see is that every single word is actually correct. It's not true. What's trying to be displayed here is the limitations of human wisdom in the midst of real, authentic suffering. So, so chapters 4 through 14 is the first cycle.

The second one is 15 through 21, and the third cycle is 23 through 25. The chapters don't matter. Just realize that there are three distinct discussions that happen within this, where they're trying to process and help Job, but they don't always do a good job. So we see some of the key, the key verses, the key phrases, right?

Remember he didn't, he didn't curse God. He said, 1315, I will trust him. Like Job's righteousness, he defends, but he also calls them miserable comforters. One of my favorite verses in Job 16. Two, you know, and we see, but Job again in 1925 here. In fact, I'm going to have Joey, if you would read this, Job's talks about, he says, I know that my redeemer lives.

So Job, despite suffering still retains a God centered worldview and a hope. That's the encouraging thing about this book, friends. Suffering doesn't have the final word. It's the loudest word, but it's not the final word. What does Job 19. 25 27 say, Joe, and add anything else you'd like after that.

Sure. Yeah. Well, this is coming from a man named Job, whose name in Hebrew means persecuted or even hated is another origin of this word. So when you kind of hear these words of Job in chapter 19, just consider what his name Hmm. Has reflected upon his life and where he turns his hope, how he reorientates his heart toward God, he says, for, I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last he will stand upon the earth and after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh, I shall see God whom I shall see for myself.

And my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me. Wow. What a beautiful way to take suffering and to turn it toward heaven and to see beyond the physical and into the spiritual, beyond the temporal, into the eternal. And just to know we have a blessed hope. The Lord who lives will one day allow us to see his beautiful face and we will look past the sufferings of this present time.

Oh, yeah, it's true. And another key verse here in this section during these dialogues of section two

is Job 23, 10 through 12, where it says, But he knows the way that I take, and when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. So again, God, Job has not forgotten God. Remember, Job's wife. had forgotten God. She was, he was embodying the fool or the one who for, who forsakes God. Psalm 14, one says, the fool says in his heart, there is no God. Remember that in wisdom literature, you always have the wise person and you have the fool. Wisdom is not just smart living. Wisdom is how we orient ourselves to God and hit the reality of who he is.

That's what wisdom is. That's why the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, right? So here, Joe, again, we.

So this again is a big section, but we really see a lot of these factors, Joey, kind of colliding together,

the limitations of human wisdom, Job's righteousness, Job's suffering, and then where does it kind of go here as we, as we kind of end this section, Job responds, and then what happens next?

At the end of this second section, Job responds and concludes with his final response. He does continue to have a faith in God. He's holding fast to the fact that he feels innocent, that he hasn't brought this upon himself through any sin that has been made known to him. At this point, he's not convicted or aware of any unconfessed or unrepentant sin. And I think that's a really important point because out comes the three friends and now a new person gets introduced, right?

Bodhi, the youngest of all of Job's close companions comes in, a man by the name of Elihu, or some people would say Elihu.

Yes.

But, uh, this man comes along and really has an entirely different way of contributing his perspective on things. In fact, he seems to not really say anything that's so, um, contrary to God's will in ways because God doesn't rebuke Elihu like he does the other

Right. No, he does.

distinction, between these. That's why we made this a whole nother section. This is a monologue of this man, Elihu who brings a whole another perspective into it.

Yeah, exactly. And what's interesting, Joey, too, is the element of age isn't really a factor until Elihu shows up here, because what we see in this section, so now we're in the third section, chapters 32 through 37, he gives basically four speeches. And another distinction here, Job doesn't respond in between each of these the way that he did in the previous section.

So Elihu kind of stands out on his own. But it is interesting that we, the, the text tells us that he's the youngest of the, of job's, friends of his counselors.

And if we read in job 32, 6 through nine, we, he tells us Elihu, uh, the son of Barel, the, the Buzzi. I'm not sure I'm saying this right, but

Mary, tell the booze

bar Rochelle, the light , I don't know if he's a heavy drinker or whatever.

Anyways, I'm just kidding. But look at what he says. What, look, what Ahu says. I notice this some, the perspective here. in light of the larger discussion happening. I'm young in years and you are aged. Therefore, I was timid and I was afraid to declare my opinion to you. And I said, quote, let days speak and many years teach wisdom.

But it is the spirit in man, the breath of the almighty, that makes them understand. It's not the old who are wise or the aged who understand what it's right. So this is interesting that that wisdom again is not just the snarkiest or the wisest or the craftiest answer. It's the godliest answer. It's the answer that returns us to the Lord.

But it's also interesting how he kind of steps back and is a little afraid because he's the youngest guy in the room. And the older should be the wiser counsel. But that's not always what happens, is it Joe?

Yes. And I think this is such an important, wisdom piece for many out there who are, maybe you're working at a business or you're involved in a church, staff or, or group environment. And you have a lot of seasoned men around you who are older and maybe you're that young man and you're saying to yourself, you know, I have some input here, but I'm going to let these who are aged and experienced and seasoned speak first.

I think that's a really great principle to show respect to your elders and to honor those who are older and over you in the faith in that sense. But what we also know in scripture is that God shows no personal favoritism toward any of his children. In fact, Paul tells his spiritual son, Timothy, let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word conduct.

Spirit, love, faith, and purity. So we see a beautiful expression in a first Timothy, chapter, four, verse 12, right about that very thing. So what I would say is when you consider this. addition by Elihu who comes in with this incredible message to give to Job from a whole different perspective, he speaks as one who believes that God has put breath into him.

He says it's the spirit in man, the breath of the almighty. So he feels like he's adding something of inspiration to this. None of the other. Men claim to give something like this. And, he really brings with great conviction, some important points to consider. And so this is a, another example of the fact that God teaches people at all different points of life.

And no matter what your age is, wisdom is not based on how many years go by, but how much you've allowed obedience to go in. And there's a difference. And so this is important that, Elihu is learning how to show obedience and how to respond to the prompting of God to speak to Job what he feels he needed to hear.

Interesting.

And what's interesting too, Joey, just from a structural perspective, and in section two, you see the back and forth happen, right? In section four, which we're going to get to in a second, we see God's final response. But this one is interesting because it kind of fits in between both of those.

We see some wisdom from Elihu, though he is younger. But we don't see the back and forth from Job or his friends. So it kind of stands alone in a number of different ways. And friends, sometimes God calls a younger person to speak as a prophetic mouthpiece in a certain situation. You know, so I love that how age is a factor in terms of respect.

That's important part. But sometimes. Young people have a burden that they feel that maybe they're not, don't have permission to share. And we've, this book really shows us how when, if you are really called of God, you should share what God has put in your heart and the burden God has given you. But,

Yes. And you know, Bodhi, another thing I would just say, you know, because God wants to use everyone in his family. Um, we all have things to share, but it's not just what we say, it's how we say it. And sometimes we learn from Elihu. It's also when we say it. So it's learning how to use wisdom to let our speech be seasoned with grace or seasoned with salt.

And that we also know not to speak corrupt words, but words that are edifying, but we also sometimes have to give the harsh truth. The Bible says in Proverbs 27 5, open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed, and sometimes we have to bring something to the light that needs to be dealt with. And he does that in chapter 33 in verse 12.

And this is a good transition to kind of move into our next section, cause he says to Job, look in this, you are not righteous. I will answer you for God is greater than man. Why do you contend with him? For he does not give an accounting of any of his words. For God may speak in one way or another, yet man does not perceive.

And so he basically is kind of setting the tone for God to come in because he's saying, look, God is going to be the one who really has the final judgment and understands what we can't figure out in this life. I like to use the word. Whenever I hear the word understanding, I like to flip the word around backwards and remind people that to understand God, you must first stand under

Hmm.

And Elihu begins to introduce this line of thinking. We must stand under him. We must humble ourself and let God reveal his wisdom. And that brings us into our fourth section. Doesn't it,

Right. Exactly. So now, Joey, we're at the crescendo of the book. Job has had his suffering happened to him. We've had the input from lots of friends and now God is going to speak.

And so friends, once you get to Job chapter 38, what we see is the crescendo of the book. Cause we, we now have a discussion. It's just that the almighty has entered the discussion. And so God's response, uh, is so key, but sometimes it gets abstracted out. Remember the sovereignty of God is at play here, as well as the limitations of human wisdom. God loves all of these people, but he, but God is a God of wisdom and truth. And that's what we see in chapter 38, because now God was response.

We see Job is humbled in. And so God responds in two chapters, 38 through 40. key chapters to read. We see Job kind of humbled, we see God speaking again, and we see some repentance from Job in that. But what's so important about chapter 38 is we see that basically as Joey said earlier, the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind.

So that is so beautiful because the Lord cares of what's going on. But what would have happened if God had stepped in earlier? Well, we would have not gotten the full sense of the gap between human wisdom and divine wisdom. So God steps in, Joey, as Joey said beautifully earlier, the timing is important as it is for this book.

And he starts asking Job questions that Job obviously can't answer. Who darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action. Like a man, I'm going to question you and make it known to you. Were you there? And he just starts like laying into job, all these questions that he can't. We were there when I laid the foundations of the earth.

Tell me if you have understanding. And of course, Job is of course, feeling the weight of this, as should we. We were not there when God put the universe in order. That's what makes him God, and that's what this third section is really, showing us is the sovereignty of God, that though suffering is real, nobody has the final word until God shows up and adds into it. Joey, what would you add?

Uh, well, this section, Job chapter 38, as you go into these next couple of chapters, 39 and, and, uh, the

so

response in 40, listen, it puts everything into perspective of how much we know so little in comparison Parison to the infinite wisdom and knowledge of God. Paul, the apostle, was so right in First Corinthians 13 when he says, For now we only know in part, but then we will know as we're also known.

For now we see through a glass mirror dimly, but then face to face. Well, here we are faced and confronted with the truth that only God can see the ends from the beginnings. Only God was there in the beginning, stretching out the universe. I mean, I love how in Job 38, it tells us, first of all, how he was the only one there along with the angels he had created because we learned that they started worshiping as he was stretching out the heavens.

I always like to point out to people in Job 38 verse seven, it says that the morning stars. Which is a picture of the angels. Another description of them. They sang together. All the sons of God shouted for joy. When did they do this? It was when God was laying the cornerstone and the foundations of the earth.

In other words, when God was creating, there was a soundtrack in the

gosh. It's so

There was music going on. The angels were singing, Holy, Holy, Holy is God Almighty. The praises of God were going forth from the created angels as God stretched out the heavens. No wonder why Psalm 19, 1 says the heavens declare the glory of

Oh, I love

and the skies show his handiwork. This is beautiful. I also love the fact that in the book of Proverbs, Bodie, in, in chapter 21, we read in verse two, every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts. See, God has the final word of seeing what He did, what He's doing, and what is actually happening within us while it's all happening in our trials and situations.

At the end of Proverbs 21 in verse 30, it says, There is no wisdom, or understanding, or counsel, against the Lord. So this is why we should all have a healthy fear of God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The knowledge of the Holy One is understanding and this divine response out of the whirlwind.

I love that picture. The wind is blowing fast a picture of the power of the Holy Spirit. God is showing us that we are not able to do anything without his ability, his omnipotence, his power, sustaining all things. He holds everything in his hand. All things exist and consist in him, and even the atoms are held together, not by atomic glue, but by Almighty God.

And so this is so important. I just love these chapters. It humbles me. It puts everything into perspective and reminds me to trust God when I can't see the full picture or understand what's happening.

Well, and I think, Joey, that is so good because think about this, friends, how much, earthly chatter do we encounter in a day, in a week, in a month? But how much divine input, do we counteract that with? Friends, that's why we need the Word of God. And that what's so interesting about Job is we actually see both happening inside the Word of God, inside the book.

But after God shows up, of course, The discussion is over. We now have the complete But what now happens to Job? So another thing is, again, Job, as we very clearly saw in the bidding, did not sin, did not bring this calamity upon himself because of his unrighteousness. In fact, Joey, it was his righteousness.

That was the reason he was selected. And friends, we don't often think that suffering is actually something that God possibly might be entrusting to us. Rather than punishing us with, because who knows what future good beyond ourselves might come from a righteous person. That could be you having to go through stuff that's not fair, that's not right, but it's how they respond. It's the tone and it's who we are in the midst of the suffering that matters more than anything. And that's where I think the book kind of closes in the last section, section 42.

That's so good. That's so good. You know, I, I just want to say one more thing on that is, you know, we're all stewards of our trials. We have to learn to be faithful. When we go into a trial, that's what the book of James tells us, right? Count it all joy. When you fall into various trials, knowing, knowing this, the testing of your faith produces patience, but let patience have its perfect work that you might become perfect and complete lacking nothing.

I just want to read these couple of verses from Job 42 just entering into this last section because I just think like as we go into this final section and we consider this divine response, this is one of the most beautiful responses of somebody who finally comes to terms with the fact that I don't have to come to terms with the facts of everything. I can trust the acts of God in the facts that I don't know. And in fact, I know that I won't lack. If God is on the throne and I am submitted to him, he is working all things together for the good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose. And so here's what he says. This is Job 42 in the opening verses.

He says, I know that you can do everything and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. You asked, who is this who hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore, I have uttered what I did not understand things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Isn't that just such an humble and honest expression from a finite human created being to an infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, holy creator.

And we're saying, God, I don't know, but you do. I only know in part, you know, in full, and I'm just going to do my part to trust you and to love you and to lean out on my own understanding anymore. And this is just a beautiful reflection of the heart that has been changed.

And so, yeah, that's so good. I think Joey, that's so perfectly, it just kind of sends us into our final section because now it's the epilogue. So what happens to Job? So we're going to now look at Job 42, is. pretty much just the wrap up of the book. So let's review our, the larger structure of the books.

We kind of land the plane on this episode. So we had the prologue, which was the tragedy of Job suffering chapters one and two. Then we have the dialogues, the flawed counsel of Job's friends chapters three through 31, the monologue, the contribution from Elihu 32 through 37. The divine response, which we just looked at 38 through 41.

That's the key section, but we can't end the book without the epilogue, which is what happens to Job? Job's repentance and restoration from God. So essentially this is kind of where the hammer comes down on Job's counselors from God rather than saying that, that no, Job is actually vindicated. He was righteous.

And then God kind of speaks in and says there was more, obviously there's always more going on than we see here, but there's a couple of key verses, Joey, in this. final section that I think really help us summarize it.

So would you mind just reading Job 42? And these are the final verses of the book. Um, but what do we, what do I, what do we need to not miss from this book as it wraps up at the end here in Job 42, 10 through 13?

Yeah. So these final verses really kind of show us God's final word, but also his final work. He was doing a work as we heard earlier, Lord, you know, the way that I take and after I've been tested, I shall come forth as gold job 2310. Well, here's the answer of the coming forth as gold here. Here's what happens.

It says in the Lord. Restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends. Now that's important. He started to pray for his friends and then that was the final piece that God wanted to accomplish in and through his life in the sanctified way. And then it says in the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.

And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. He had 14, 000 sheep, 6, 000 camels, 1, 000 yoke of oxen, and 1, 000 female donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. So God actually brings back double the children. He's doubly blessed. He's got great, new chapters of his life to live new blessings to experience and a new perspective to live life with because God has been faithful to work all things together for good for Job, which is why God allowed this all to happen in the, in the very beginning.

He knew there would be a sanctifying work within job, and he knew that he would do a beautifying work for job. And that's where the book of job lands.

I love it. Well, and Joey, as we look at these final verses, the Lord restored the fortunes of Joe when he prayed for his friends. I think about another righteous man who suffered unfairly for his friends. And what did Jesus do on the cross? Jesus prayed for his friends. He prayed for those, right? He said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they were doing. I mean, is that not such a beautiful summary of what we've just walked through in this book?

what a, what a beautiful type of Jesus and a picture to point to

right? Oh, it's

And the whole Bible points to Jesus. That's how we always like to direct everyone's attention. The volume of the book is written of him, and, Jesus is the one who has gone through the most of suffering, and if anybody ever asked the question, why do, You know, bad things happen to good people, well, the reality is there are no good people. We're all sinners. So we can't really ask that question in full honesty. Sure. There are sometimes people have undeserved things that seem to happen to them, but this is why we're in a fallen world. This is why God sent his son, Jesus into the fallen world. And Jesus on the cross said, father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.

Jesus paid the price of our sin. He took upon human suffering to the fullest extent, even learning obedience by the things that he suffered. But ultimately he was dying in our place, the righteous for the unrighteous, the just for the unjust, so that we could be forgiven. We could be pardoned of our sins and we can enter into a relationship with God through him. That is the gospel. That is the good news of Jesus Christ. And we do see a picture of that early glimpse of the gospel at the end of the story, don't we Bodie?

We totally do. Yeah. And it's so interesting, Joey, too. This is kind of my, my answer to number seven of our framework. What do I personally love about this book? I kind of, I'm looking at these verses here at the end, you know, what's important to understand is that when you read things like 14, 000 sheep, 6, 000 camels, what you would read in a modern culture is millions of dollars.

This is a measure of wealth. So what's interesting, yes, Job does get, he does end up having more children. He does end up receiving a measure of wealth, but that really isn't Job's treasure. What Job's treasure is, is God, right? But Job's treasure was God in the beginning, but his perspective on who God is has broadened.

And that's what's so beautiful about the walk of faith. When you're at the beginning of your journey, or whether you're deeply And so we hope that these episodes that really will point you to how the Bible is there to help you acquire wisdom, and that's the end. So man, Joey, what an episode.

So the book of Job five sections, prologue, dialogues, monologue, divine response, and epilogue. What do you personally love about this book as we land the plane and wrap up our episode?

Well, I love the fact that God didn't rush through this. This book has a lot of space to reflect on. If, if you ever go through the book of Job, which we pray all of you guys, after hearing this episode, we'll want to go through this book in depth. It'll really explore a lot of those nuanced questions. There's a lot of things that we are not supposed to know on this side of heaven.

We are not in heaven yet. This is why Paul, the apostle in Romans 8, 18 said for the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Brothers and sisters, we're not completed in our full glorified bodies yet where we're going through a physical process where Paul would write the outward man is perishing, but the inward man is being renewed day by day, even by the spirit of the Lord as we were being changed from glory to glory.

And, and one of my favorite verses that we didn't comment on Bodie, is found at the very end of this book. It's in job 42 in verses five and six. It's his last words. This is the last recorded words of Job, and he says this. I have heard of you speaking of the Lord. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now, but now my eye sees you.

When he says my eye sees you, it's kind of like the lamp of the body is the eye. And if the eye is good, the whole body is full of light as Jesus would later say, well, he has revelation now that he didn't have before.

Sometimes you think, well, what's the purpose of a suffering? What's the purpose of a trial? Just realize saints, you're getting revelation to see Jesus. How about this to long for Jesus? How about this to realize that in not too long of a time, you will be in the presence of Jesus. You have to endure sufferings. We have to endure hardship. And of course he goes on to say, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes.

That final repentance of Job was the realization that I didn't know as much as I thought I did. And I'm so sorry, Lord, that I questioned you. You are wise. I am not, you know, all things. And I just want to lay my life in your hands. Once again, it was a beautiful surrender to the Lord. He surrendered his life back to the father, the almighty God who knows all things, who can do all things.

And I just love that transition. He heard about God. Now he's seen him. Something experiential has taken place, something intimate. And we pray for all of you who are listening to this right now, you'll be drawn into a deeper, loving relationship with the Lord, Jesus Christ, to know him personally, intimately, even in the fellowship of his sufferings as Philippians 3, 10 says, God has so much more to do in your life and to show you as you put your trust in him. That's what I love about this book.

It's beautiful, Joey. Awesome. Friends. We hope that this has helped you understand the book of Job. We've talked through our seven part framework. If you would like a summary of all of the key ideas that we unpacked. YouCanLearntheBible.com/Notes is where you would go to download that.

We so appreciate the feedback that we get from you guys on YouTube comments, as well as the reviews that you guys have left for us on Apple podcast on Spotify. The whole reason we do this is so that you would delight more in the Lord. And we delight more in the Lord by seeing his truth and beauty in his word.

But Joey, we're done with episode 24. We are now going to one of the biggest, most challenging single books to summarize in an episode, but we're doing it anyways, Joey,

episode 25. Psalms explained. Joey, how in the world are we going to explain the book of Psalms in one episode? Friends, you'll have to listen to hear it, but Joey, what's one thing they can look forward to in the meantime?

Well, it may be the longest, you know, book that we're going to be looking at with 150 chapters of Psalms, but understand these are beautiful prayers, beautiful praises. We're going to be looking at the songbook of Israel. This is got so many reflections. We talked about the intimacy of Job when suffering is going on.

Well, Psalms hits all the human emotions, all the different transitions of life and so there's going to be so much richness in that but we won't be able to cover all the material in Psalms, but we're going to hopefully give you some really helpful insights that you can journey through Psalms in a way that's going to deeply enrich your life for the rest of your life If you haven't already discovered the treasures that are in there.

Amen. I love it. Friends, we are going to sign off. Go read the book of Job. We pray that this episode was helpful. We pray that you continually stay in the word and know God loves you and know that we are here because we believe, don't we, Joey, that you can learn the Bible. Until next time, grace and peace, and we'll see you guys soon.

Thanks.

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