Day 317: Job 18-19 | Read The Bible In A Year | Bible Study with Commentary by Dr. Manny Arango

Welcome to the Bible department podcast powered by Arma. We are walking through the entire Bible in a year. You can go to the description or thebibledepartment.com to download a reading plan and join the journey. (upbeat music) - Family, welcome to day 317 here on the Bible department. I'm super, super excited. We're continuing our trek through the book of Job. Today we got two chapters on the docket. I'm really excited about it. Job chapters 18 and 19. My goal is to give you five nerdy nuggets just from these two chapters of the Bible. Hey, if you haven't done the reading for today, how about you stop the video, pause the audio, go get the reading done, okay? It's only two chapters of the Bible. And so you can get the reading done in just a couple of minutes and know exactly. You know, you know, I have to have context for what we are going to talk about today, all right? First off, just I'll tell you right up at the front. I don't have a context clue for today, but that's honestly because we're gonna put two of our passages that I guess I'm assigning to our nerdy nuggets for the day in context, okay? So just want you to remember, Job, maybe this is helpful context, Job is not in Israelite, right? He's not a Jewish person. And so we're gonna have to put a lot of what Job

is gonna say in context. So I just want us to remember, I think it can be easy to assume, yeah, every single character in the Bible is, you know, a part of God's people. It's like, no, actually, Job and all of his friends are wise men, but there's nothing like that would consider, that would make us think of them as like ethnic Jews, okay? These would not be ethnic Jewish individuals. And I don't know if you remember this, but it's kind of like when Abraham ties to this character named Melchizedek, right? Melchizedek's not a Jew, like Melchizedek is this fascinating figure, but Melchizedek's not like someone who's a part of the covenant people of God. However, he still, you know, let's say, assuming he's a real person, he's still someone who knows the Lord, fears the Lord, walks in the ways of the Lord and has some knowledge of sacrifice, some understanding of like, how to obey God, okay? So there seems to be clues that although God's main salvation focus throughout the entire Hebrew Bible is his people, the chosen people of Israel, right? There seems to be this proof that there are pockets of people that God has revealed himself to in some way. And Melchizedek seems to be one of these kinds of people. It just has a knowledge of who God is. And it seems to be that Job also is the same,

that Job is not an ethnic Jew. He doesn't have the Torah, but somehow Job has an understanding of how to be righteous, how to walk in the ways of the Lord. And so we get these glimpses throughout the Hebrew Bible of people who are not in the lineage of Abraham, right? They don't come from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They're not part of the 12 tribes. They're not a part of ethnic Israel, yet they still have an understanding of who God is and how to please him, which then causes us to question, and I don't know that any of us have a good answer, but how do these people know Yahweh? How do they know him? And the only short answer that I could come up with is that God reveals himself, like love longs to communicate. And God's a loving, he's a loving God, he's a loving Father. And the heart of the Father is to reveal himself to his children. And so I just want us to kind of wrap our minds around the fact that like, oh yeah, okay, like Job is not like a Jewish person who's like walking around with like a copy of the Torah, okay? Okay, let's talk to our nerdy nuggets today. I got five for you, all right? I want to connect the dots here between what Bill Dad is saying in chapter 18 and what Job has already said in chapter 14. So all right, so when we get to Job chapter 14,

I want you to focus on verse 18, the second half verse 18. It says, and as a rock is moved from its place, okay? As a rock is removed from its place. Now, I want us to jump to Job chapter 18. Okay, Job chapter 18, verse four, okay? So we're comparing Job chapter 14, verses 18 and 19. And here's what it says in Job 18, four. You who tear yourself to pieces in anger is the earth to be abandoned for your sake or must the rocks be moved from their place? Rocks be moved from their place. Remember, what did Job 14 chapter 18 and 19 say? And as a rock is moved from its place. So what is Job 18 verse four, saying or must the rocks be moved from their place? Okay, the verses are connected. Okay, so what was happening in Job 14 in chapter 14 verses 18 and 19 is lamenting. Okay, is giving a lament about God, saying as the mountain erodes and crumbles and as a rock is moved from its place, as water wears away stones and as torrents wash away the soil. So you destroy a person's hope. Okay. And so now built at four chapters later, kind of has a clap back. He's like, no, you Job, you who tear yourself to pieces in your anger

is the earth to be abandoned for your sake or must the rocks be moved from their place? He's actually quoting Job to Job. Bill Dad has remembered what Job said for chapters earlier. And where in chapter 14, Job is complaining about what's suffering, what his friends, what God has done to destroy him. Bill Dad is now saying to Job, no, that's what your anger is doing. That's what your sin has done. And if you just want to think about it, the imagery that's being created here is that of an earthquake, okay? So think about it, chapter 14 verse 18. But as a mountain erodes and crumbles and as a rock is moved from its place, okay? The imagery here is an earthquake. As everything is shaken, as everything is chaotic, as everything is destroyed, okay? By the Lord and by the suffering and by the season. And like, I have no hope. And then Bill Dad in chapter 18 comes out the gate. Quotes Job, like uses his own words and says, no, the thing that's causing the earthquake isn't God. The thing that's causing the earthquake isn't suffering. The thing that's causing the earthquake is your sin. You need to repent, you need to confess. Okay, this is the tone that Bill Dad is gonna have with Job. Okay, so that's our first dirty nugget

that not possible to really understand what we have here in Job chapter 18 verse four. If you don't go back to Job chapter 14 verse 18 and 19 and connect the dots, hopefully I did an okay job connecting those dots for us. Okay, second, if you take Bill Dad's words totally out of context, they're not that bad. Okay, so Bill Dad has what's called reward theology, right? You do bad things, bad things happen to you. You do good things, good things happen to you. This is reward theology. This is what you sow and that's that. And it's not that that's not true, but in the same way that multiplication is more complicated than addition, that is a very simplified way to see the world, right? If you're wise, you're gonna be blessed and if you're foolish, then you're not gonna be blessed and you're gonna reap the evil or the foolishness that you've sown. It's not that that's wrong. Algebra doesn't make addition wrong. Algebra is just a more complicated way to think about math. It's more complex. And so I would say that that reward theology, that idea, it's not wrong, it's just a very simplified way to think about life. And clearly, that I would use a golf analogy here that that club doesn't work in every scenario. You know, I love to golf and what you begin to learn,

especially as a beginner is, all right, when should I use my four iron, when should I use my nine, when should I use my hybrid? Like, you know, obviously you know when to use a driver and you know when to use your putter. That's easy, but everything else is negotiable. You know, which wedge should I use? Should I use a gap wedge? Should I use a flop wedge? Should I use a lob wedge? Should I use a, you know, like should I use my sand wedge? Should I use my pitching wedge? Like, which wedge should I even use? Like, okay, on and on and on, you get the point. So reward theology is not wrong, but I wouldn't use my putter to drive the golf ball, okay? I wouldn't use my putter to drive 300 yards. And so bad, not like totally incorrect, but terrible in the context of telling Joe any of this content. Like, golly, sit back, it's terrible. Okay, so if you take Build Dad out, who's actually innocent. What he has to say from chapters, chapter 18, verses five, all the way to verse 21, is not untrue. He's actually just giving a bunch of truths about wicked people. He says this, "The lamp of a wicked man is snuffed out. "The flame of his fire stops burning. "This is true.

"It just so happens to be jokes not a wicked man, "so it's totally irrelevant." But other than that, like, these are true statements. Let's keep reading. The light of his tent becomes dark. The lamp beside him goes out. The vigor of his step is weakened. His own schemes throw him down. His feet thrust him into a net. He wanders into its mesh. A trap seizes him by the heel, a snare holds him fast. On and on and on and on and on and on and on. He's just talking about the realities of living in wickedness. The reality of being a wicked man or a wicked woman or a wicked person. And the reality is that everything that Bill Dad has to say in chapter 18 verses five to 21 is true. Like, factually true. It just doesn't apply to Job. These are terrible things to say to Job. But that doesn't mean that they're terrible things. And in of themselves, these are actually good things. It just has not found its proper application. Good club. My seven iron is a good club. But it's possible to use a good club at the wrong hole or at the wrong spot on a course. And so reward theology, I don't wanna make it seem like it's just evil and wrong, but it's being used incorrectly

by Bill Dad and by all the friends that are trying to get Job to confess. All right, third nerdy nugget. Job's theology is wrong, okay? Job chapter 19, let's move to verse 19. 'Cause Job is now gonna respond to Bill Dad. And what he's gonna say starting in verse eight is he's gonna talk, he's on my Yahweh here. He has blocked my way so I cannot pass. He has shrouded my paths in darkness. He has stripped me of my honor and removed the crown from my head. He tears me down on every side 'til I am gone. He uproots my hope like a tree. His anger burns against me. He counts me among his enemies. His troops advance in force. They build a siege ramp against me and it camp around my tent. Okay, so Job's gonna go on and on and on and on and on about all this terrible, evil, wicked stuff that God is doing to him. And here's where Job is describing the reality of his experience with true words. But God is not doing any of this. And we know exactly who's done this. The accuser, the Satan, the prosecutor. And a lot of times I think we end up saying things not realizing that what we're saying is nuts. I've heard people say,

and God gave me cancer. It's like, what? God doesn't have cancer. Like, I could give you this copy of Christian Chaos 'cause it's mine. It belongs to me. I could give it to you. I could not give you a million dollars 'cause I don't have that. I can't give you something unless I have it. And so this idea, like God gave me cancer or God gave me this or God gave it's like, I don't think God did or could give you that. That's a evil thing, you know what I mean? That doesn't mean that God hasn't allowed it to happen, but it is the hand of Satan that attacks God's children. And we have to have a good theology here because Job just, you know, out of ignorance is like, oh, look at all these things these things that God has done. And if you're not careful, that'll mess with your idea of God, your image, your mental image of God's identity, of his character, of his nature. And so I wanna tweak that, okay? God gives awesome things and we live in a world where God's not the only giver, given out stuff, okay? Why when someone gets cancer, why wouldn't we say, man, Satan gave that person cancer? That's actually way more theologically accurate because what do we know from the prologue?

That it is Satan that has literally attacked Job. That's what has happened. All right, so Job is right in that he's not sinned against God, but his theology's wrong, okay? Bill Dad is wrong in that Job is not sinned against God, but in terms of just his theology on wickedness, he's right. And that's what makes this content And that's, we're gonna get to our timeless truth. That's actually gonna be our timeless truth. That you could be right and wrong at the same time. And you could be wrong and right at the same time. And I actually think that's what we need wisdom for. To not be people who are right, but wrong. Not be people who are wrong and right. Anyway, I'll make that crystal clear as to what that actually means when we get to our timeless truth. All right, family, the weight is over my brand new book, "Crushing Chaos" is out now. And available everywhere books are sold. Literally today, I walked into a Barnes & Noble and I signed a bunch of copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes & Noble or you can go to a books a million or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy if you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective. If you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing it in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life,

I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life. I think this book is gonna be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one. I think you should get a copy today. All right, back to the episode. Fourth nerdy nugget. I think these verses are arguably the saddest verse in the entire Bible. These verses are our Job 19 versus 13 and 19. And in these verses, Job describes abandonment, a feeling of aloneness or loneliness. And this stuff is heartbreaking. Job 19, okay? And we're gonna start reading in verse 13. Job 19 verse 13 says this. He, meaning God, has alienated my family from me. My acquaintances are completely estranged from me. My relatives have gone away. My closest friends have forgotten me. My guests and my female servants count me a foreigner. And they look on me as a stranger. I summon my servant, but he does not answer. Though I beg him with my own mouth, my breath is offensive to my own wife. Same Job, sometimes my wife thinks my breast name. Anyway, my breath is offensive to my own wife. I'm loathsome to my own family.

Even a little boy scorn me when I appear, they ridicule me. All my intimate friends detest me. Those I love have turned against me. I am nothing but skin and bones. I have escaped only by the skin of my teeth. It's not just, you see how in lamenting his situation, Job doesn't say, you know, all my money's gone. Or, you know, my wealth is gone or my children aren't here anymore. I'm sick or these boils hurt. It's the relationships, the relationships that I have valued are no longer there, which man, if I could emphasize anything, I would tell you, your relationships are the thing that make you wealthy. He's not, he doesn't miss the money. He misses the relationships, the friendships, the family relationships, the acquaintances, even the work relationships, right? When you think servants, you can just go ahead and take out the word servant and put employee. 'Cause that's really the employer-employee relationship is the similar, I would say, counterpart to what a servant would have done in the ancient world. Not a one-for-one, but it's not an exact equivalent, but it's a good comparison. And so, man, that can easily be a timeless truth. That so often, we think that life is about attaining money, but life isn't about attaining money.

The thing that people are going to mourn the most if it's gone are the depth of the human relationships that we have. And then last, my last nerdy nugget for the day is that Job, again, kinda has this prophetic edge, and I love it. So Job chapter 19, verses 25 to 27, says this. If you got it, you can read it with me. Job chapter 19, verse 25, "I know that my redeemer lives." Ooh, I don't know if you remember that song. I think it's like Nicole C. Mullen. I know my redeemer lives. I won't sing it. I won't sing it. It's a good song though. It's a really good song. And that in the end, he will stand on the earth. Not now. In context, Job is talking about Yahweh. And he's saying, "He's gonna come down and talk to me. "He's gonna meet me." Which obviously is foreshadowing what's gonna happen towards the close of the book. But he's also saying there's a redeemer that's going to stand on the earth. Then, and after my skin has been destroyed yet in my flesh, I will see God. Job seems to have some understanding of something that's happening post, like desert death, like resurrection. Maybe Job believes like God's going to come down and talk to me. And I know seeing God face to face is going to kill me, but somehow he's going to resurrect me so that we can have a conversation.

But, obviously, we know that the fulfillment of this is found in the life of Jesus, who gets resurrected from the dead. And after my skin has been destroyed yet in my flesh, I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes and not another, how my heart yearns within me. This is actually the cry of the New Testament that we would see the Lord, that we would see the Lord in the face of Jesus. All right, I'll give you a good example of someone who is right but wrong. In the New Testament, these are called Pharisees. They are right, but they're wrong. I can give you another example of someone who's right but wrong. It's like the youth pastor who thinks they know the right way to do something, even though the senior pastor isn't really a fan of how they do it. And the youth pastor thinks that because they have results, that they're right, but really what would be right is to submit to how your pastor wants it done. Because right isn't right. Right is always right in context. You can't just take things out of context and they be objectively right. No, no, no, what makes something right is whether or not it's appropriate, whether or not it's in the spirit of what God would want for that moment. And that's our Thomas Truth for the day. Bill Dad is actually right. His words are more right until you put him in context. And then you realize that his words are grossly inappropriate. Job's words are wrong until you put his words in context. And you realize actually the dude who sounds wrong is right. And that's life, ain't it? The reason we need wisdom is to not just have the right answer but to have the right tone. To not just have the right answer but to know the appropriate time to apply that answer. Not just to have the right answer but to be filled with the spirit and filled with discernment so that we can spontaneously and maybe even sporadically or in ways that are unplanned apply God's wisdom to life, whether it's our life or another person's life. Not just because we've memorized a set of right answers, but we know how to spontaneously apply wisdom. And that I think that's why we've got chapters 18 and 19 here.

Where Bill Dad's right but wrong and then Job's wrong but right. And I think it helps us to see there's so much more nuance under the surface of what's happening in these texts. And that's not just true for Bill Dad and Job or for any other other characters in the Book of Job. In their historical context, that's true for you and for me as well. All right, tomorrow we've got day 318. I'll see you right here. We're going to be looking at Job chapters 20 and 21. I can't wait. Same time, same place. If you're on a streak, I'm proud of you. Even if you're not on a streak, I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast. If this episode was helpful, how about you leave a comment, share with a friend, and subscribe so that you never miss an episode. To learn more about the show, head to thebobledepartment.com. We'll see you right back here tomorrow.